


The Courage or The Fall

by intellectual_desperado



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Major Character Injury, Slow Romance, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 46,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intellectual_desperado/pseuds/intellectual_desperado
Summary: The First Wizarding War was a time for great bravery and deep betrayals. As Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters begin to unearth themselves from the shadows, forces step up in order to protect their world from great evils. Families will be torn apart, friendships will be tested, children are forced to grow up sooner than they should and the heroes don't win as often as legends would have you believe.As the Marauders and their friends finish their final years at Hogwarts, they realize that the outside world is changing and that they will soon have to pick a line in the sand. Meanwhile Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody notice that the Ministry of Magic will not be enough to ward of the threat of Voldemort. They begin to recruit people from all walks to join their Order of the Pheonix.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom, Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks, Dorcas Meadowes/Emmeline Vance, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Lily Evans Potter & Severus Snape, Marauders & Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon & James Potter, Marlene McKinnon & Lily Evans Potter, Regulus Black & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Regulus Black & Severus Snape, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Peter Pettigrew & James Potter, Sirius Black/Marlene McKinnon
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	1. Summertime Sadness

A midsummer summer rainstorm was hounding the English countryside. It was the type of rain that followed a drawn-out heatwave to bring a reprieve to people who had stationed themself in front of fans and under the shade to seek some comfort from the blazing sun. While most of the small village near South Yorkshire were crammed into their homes, a modest congregation trickled out of a church side graveyard. A few still held on to their handkerchiefs and wiped away idle tears, while others held strong in keeping their composure while in public. 

“It's such a shame. Why did such an awful thing have to happen to such a sweet family?” remarked the elderly Mrs. Wilkes. “He was the only male figure in the house. What will the girls do without a father?” 

“Oh stop now, Bessie,” shot back her husband. “Judy is more than capable enough to look after the family and those girls are nearly grown now. Anyway, if anyone tries to give them trouble the older one can cut them down with that scowl of hers.” 

“ _John_!” Mrs. Wilkes rebuked. 

“You know it's true,” he defended. “Also the other one will be off to that boarding school in about a month so it's not like Judy will have her hands full trying to keep an eye on the both of them.” 

“Will they be able to afford that school without Harold’s income?” 

John nodded quickly, “Harold said that she had received a full scholarship for her entire stay there - a school for gifted kids. I can believe it too, that girl is as sharp as a whip and a charming thing too.” 

Mrs. Wilkes sniffed in response and glanced back quickly to the three figures that stood huddled under the umbrella at the top of the cemetery hill, “Well I suppose that’s one less thing they need to worry about.” 

Perched at the top of the hill, Judy Evans had an arm wrapped around each one of her daughters as if holding onto them would keep the entire world from falling apart. Logically, she knew this day would eventually come but she didn’t expect it to be so soon and while her girls were so young. True, the girls were nearly adults, but in her eyes, they were still children with their entire lives ahead of them. 

To Judy’s right stood her younger daughter Lily, who let tears flow freely down her face. Lily, who’s time with her family had been limited to coming home for the holidays after starting at Hogwarts, felt that she had been robbed of precious time that she could have spent with her father. Judy had assured her that even though she and Harold missed their daughter terribly while she was off at school they couldn’t have been more proud of their daughter’s abilities and how her father wouldn’t have spent those years any other way. 

To her left sat Petunia, who stood with a solemn and stoic face. She hadn’t let us a single tear since the day Harold passed away, at least not as far as Judy and Lily had seen. Judy knew that her daughter was trying to put on a brave face for her and although Petunia would never admit it, she was trying to be strong for Lily as well. 

It was Petunia who was in the garden with Harold when he collapsed on that fateful day. 

While Lily regaled her parents with stories from Hogwarts and the small wizarding village that neighbored the school grounds, Petunia and Harold had shared a love for gardening. They often spent hours on the weekend planting flowers, maintaining weeds, and tending to vegetables. One time, Lily tried to join in on the bonding by suggesting that next summer they could use a method she had learned in her Herbology class. Judy had watched her eldest daughter cautiously and as Petunia was about to lash out, Harold jumped in gently. 

“Thanks, love, but Tunie and I like to do gardening the buggle way.”

Lily giggled and rolled her eyes in response, “Its _muggle_ , Dad. And that’s fine but don’t come crying to me when Mrs. Wilkes beats you out for best tomatoes at the Midsummer Festival next year.” 

“Oh we won’t, we’re going to be beating that bag the old fashioned way!” Harold boasted. “Just you wait and see Lilypad.” 

“Whatever you say, muggle,” Lily replied as she skipped out of the kitchen. 

Harold shot his older daughter a quick wink and she returned a grateful smile. “We best deliver on the promise though, Tunie. I did sneak a glance at old Bessie’s tomatoes and they look spectacular. If I have to take another year of that woman’s false modesty I might have to take Lily up on her offer.” 

Gardening was the only time Petunia felt like she led a normal life. Until the afternoon of Saturday of July 31, 1976. 

As the heatwave was gripping the northern region of the country, the village was not spared. Petunia and Harold were doing their usual bonding time in the garden, an hour later Harold had excused himself to go seek the comfort of the indoors. He was halfway across the garden before he gripped his left arm in discomfort and fell harshly to the ground. Petunia had screamed for help and Judy ran out of the house, while Lily phoned for an ambulance. 

However, their efforts to keep the patriarch alive were to no use, and later the doctor would tell the Evans women that Harold had died before he even hit the ground. 

The days between Harold’s death and the funeral had passed in a haze for Lily and Judy, who were in a state of shock. Petunia had taken care of all the funeral details and made sure everything went perfectly. Judy suspected that her older daughter may have thought that if she did everything perfectly that it would somehow bring Harold back or absolve her of the guilt she may have felt for not being able to save her father. Judy wanted to hold and shake some sense to Petunia that what happened was not her fault, but right now it was best to give her space for the time being. 

With a deep sigh, Judy squeezed both of her daughter’s shoulders. “Alright, loves, time to go before this rain and our tears wash us away.” 

The three women turned in unison to take an uneasy trek back into the village. What they didn’t notice on the trek down the hill was a lanky, teenage boy with a hooked nose standing beneath a tree keeping an eye on the trio. He waited until they were totally out of sight before he moved to the gravesite to place down a white flower on the fresh mound of dirt.

“I’m so sorry,” whispered the young Severus Snape. 


	2. Prodigal

It was no secret the rift between Sirius Black and his family began after he was sorted into Gryffindor in his first year. During his first two years at Hogwarts, Sirius would try to overcompensate and obey his parents to dull their shame of his divergence from the tradition of being placed in Slytherin. However, after spending more time around with his newfound brothers at school and acquainting himself with muggle-born housemates Sirius began to realize the error of his family’s ways. 

It wasn’t until he watched his mother blast Andromeda’s picture off of the family tree that he decided he would actively rebel against the House of Black. 

While home for the Christmas and summer holidays he would agitate his parents with stories of the clever muggle-born girl who was top of his class and how his closest friends were ‘blood traitors’ and ‘half-breeds’. In a personal stroke of genius, Sirius hung muggle posters in his room with permanent sticking charms with his mother’s wand to avoid triggering the Trace. 

Oftentimes this rebellion led to screaming matches between Walburga, Orion, and Sirius while Regulus watched in quiet distress. Other times, it would lead to physical violence. 

After one particularly bad beating, Regulus convinced Kreacher to tend to Sirius wounds and he begged his older brother to pick his battles wisely. Sirius reluctantly agreed to hold his tongue more often for Reg’s sake. 

This particular summer holiday, Sirius was actively avoiding interaction with his family whenever he could manage it. If he was bored, he would sneak out of the house to explore the streets of London. Sometimes he even brought Reg with him. It was the smoothest holiday the Black had in recent memory until Kreacher apparated into Sirius’ bedroom one morning to inform him that his presence was required at breakfast. 

Sirius rolled his eyes and followed the house-elf into the dining room where Walburga, Orion, and Regulus were already eating. Regulus and Sirius locked eyes as the younger brother silently implored Sirius to behave.

“I’ve been summoned?” 

“Don’t start,” Orion stated gruffly without looking up from his book. Walburga stared at her son with mild disdain.

“Sit down, boy,” Walburga sneered. Sirius fought the urge to roll his eyes but obeyed the command. Kreacher reappeared to throw down a plate of eggs, blood sausage, and toast in front of Sirius with such force that one sausage fell off the plate and rolled down the long table. 

“Exemplary service, as usual, Kreacher,” he quipped. Out of the corner of his eye, Sirius noticed that Reg’s lips twitched upright for the merest of seconds. Walburga, however, fixed her son with a withering glare as he shoveled the food into his mouth. “So, what brought on the family bonding time?” 

“Your aunt, uncle, and cousins will be joining us for dinner on Friday evening,” Walburga responded. “You are expected to be present for the dinner and on your best behavior.” 

“Will it be first cousins? Or third-cousins twice removed?” 

Regulus coughed in a poor attempt to mask his laughter. It was a running joke between the two brothers that their parents would never have them interact with anyone outside of the Ancient and Noble House of Black if they can control it. 

“Don’t be smart, boy,” Orion chastised, finally looking up from his paper. “Your Uncle Cygnus and Aunt Druella will be here with Bellatrix, Rudolphus, and Narcissa. They’ve shared that Lucius Malfoy will also be joining them.” 

Sirius’ stomach turned over, he and Lucius Malfoy had never been on the best of terms at school. He’d rather not spend one of his nights of freedom listening to the pompous git gloat about himself. 

“And why exactly will Lucius be joining?” Sirius inquired. 

“Because he and Narcissa have been betrothed. They are expected to marry this coming spring,” Walburga informed her son. 

Sirius nearly choked on his eggs. It wasn’t rare for pureblood families to arrange marriages to keep the bloodlines intact with their beliefs but somehow this took him by surprise. He knew that Lucius and Cissy ran in the same circle when they attended Hogwarts but had never seen them share any particular warmth or fondness for one another. 

“You **must** be kidding - Lucius and Cissy look like they could be twins! How do you expect to get around the usual workarounds of how these arranged marriages aren’t inbreeding?"

Regulus hid his smirk behind a napkin, he knew his brother was right but would never be bold enough to speak his mind as Sirius often did. Walburga pursed her lips and glared at her eldest son. 

“Narcissa and Lucius will make a fine pureblood match. I fear that the only pureblood match we’ll be able to find for you is with a blood traitor family that is tolerant of mudblood and half-breeds,” she replied. 

Sirius opened his mouth to argue back, but Regulus kicked his shin under the table to stop him. 

“Right, well if that’s all - I’ll be in my room preparing for this momentous occasion.” 

Sirius marched himself up to his bedroom and threw himself onto his bed. Behind him, he heard a gentle knock at the door. 

“Come in, Reg,” he commanded. 

“Well, I have to admit that you handled that better than I had expected,” the younger brother started. “Listen, it's one night and we both know it's going to be dreadful. Lucius is so full of himself that you won’t even be able to get a word in all night, all you have to do is sit there and eat Kreacher’s dreadful pea soup.” 

Sirius scoffed, “You’re not wrong about Malfoy, but do you really think that Bella isn’t going to try and provoke a fight? Or that they all won’t be prattling on about their disgusting blood purity shite all night?” 

“Sirius,” his brother sighed, “Mum’s on her final straw and if you embarrass her in front of Aunt Dru, Malfoy, and the Lestranges I think that might be it for you. I get it - you’ll be fine without Mum and Dad, but I can be in this house with them I’ll go mad.” 

Sirius stared at his younger brother, he never really thought about how his brother was being torn in two different directions. Sirius seems to be winning the battle for Reg’s soul and if he abandoned him now Merlin only knows what would happen. 

“Alright,” Sirius replied. “I won’t cause any trouble.” 

Reg beamed at his older brother as he backed out of the room, “The night doesn’t totally have to be a wash - maybe I can convince Kreacher to put a few puking pasties into Rudolfus’ pea soup.” 

\--

For the most part, dinner was going as well as could be expected. No one paid any mind to Sirius, as they knew he did not share any interest in their particular ‘causes.’ Sirius just pushed his food around and pretended to listen to the conversation going on around him. Until something suddenly piqued his interest. 

“One fascinating thing that’s happened at this ministry this month is that Dorcas Meadows has begun training to become an Auror,” Lucius leered. 

Sirius had recognized the name. Dorcas Meadows used to be best friends with Andromeda when they were still at Hogwarts. However, like the rest of the Black family and the other pureblood families in their inner circle, Dorcas cut off her relationship with Andromeda when she announced that she would marry Ted Tonks. 

“Really? I wonder what Lionel and Ophelia think about that?” Orion replied. 

“It is quite a noble calling, I’d imagine that they would both be thrilled about her choosing that career path,” Walburga chimed in. “And it always is good to have more connections within the Ministry.” 

“I wouldn’t count on Dorcas to be useful to us quite yet Auntie,” Bellatrix warned. “According to Augustus Rookwood, Dorcas and Ezra had a huge spat last year and moved out on her own. Hardly ever talks to her parents either if his sources are correct.” 

Wonder if she came to her senses that you're all barking mad, Sirius thought to himself. 

“Oh dear, I thought the Meadows all got on quite well with each other,” Druella shared. “Dorcas always seemed that she always had a good head on her shoulder...but we’ve been wrong about these things before.” 

Sirius could have rolled his eyes about how tactless Lucius was being, but he had to admit it was bold to make a dig at Andromeda with her whole family present. Sirius noticed that Narcissa cast an anxious glance at her parents, but he was unsure if she was worried that her fiance's comments would start a fight or if she was hoping they would stick up for her estranged sister. 

However, the parents seemed willing to let the comment slide. 

“I don’t believe she is in blood traitor territory quite yet, Mama” Bellatrix replied. “And Ezra has always been known to be more than a handful when we were at school. Perhaps one of his mad experiments drove her mad enough to move out of the family home.” 

Lucius chuckled, “I almost forgot about that if there was ever a commotion in the dungeon, you could be sure that Ezra Meadows was behind it with some odd invention.” 

“Yes and Dorcas would be shrieking at him like a banshee for causing so much trouble,” Narcissa giggled, “Not that it ever stopped her brother.” 

While the Black family and their guests all chortled at their memories during their time at Hogwarts. 

“Well it would do well if the Meadows could mend the relationship between Dorcas and Ezra,” Rudolphus chimed in. “Ezra has been very involved with the organization that Lucius, Bella and myself work with. In fact, Lionel has made quite a few generous contributions to our cause.” 

Again, Sirius saw Narcissa threw another anxious glance between Lucius and her parents. It was then, that Sirius suddenly realized that this wasn’t a regular familial visit from his dear cousins. This was a shakedown for a donation for this so-called organization

Walburga, also keen to what Sirius had realized himself, gave her in-laws a wicked smirk and cocked her eyebrow. 

“Yes, Orion was telling me about this organization and your leader,” she said in a too-casual tone. “He seems like a bold man, but his approach to the cause seems that it will draw some...unwanted attention.”

“Well, Auntie, a cause as crucial as our’s demands some bold action, don’t you think?” Bellatrix asked. 

Walburga contemplated her niece’s question, “Perhaps, but you may wind up alienating certain pureblood families that remain on the fence or push the blood traitor families into a fight.” 

“Yes, Ewan McKinnon has been quite outspoken against previous causes that promote blood purity. He even played a hand in striking down a proposal the Rosiers made a few years back that would exclude the enrollment of mudbloods at Hogwarts,” Orion added. “You’d do well not to get on his bad side early on as he can be quite formidable if he’s crossed.” 

Bellatrix and Rodolphus scoffed in disgust, “The Dark Lord makes McKinnon look like a quivering schoolboy. We have nothing to fear.” 

“We’re not doubting the power of your leader, my Dear,” Orion replied. “Just advising that the cause might see more success if you quietly build your ranks rather than antagonizing the Head Auror so early into your crusade.” 

Rudolphus remained defensive, but Bellatrix and Lucius seem to be heeding the older man’s advice. 

Sirius, however, felt sick to his stomach due to the conversation at hand. Suddenly, he couldn’t help but think that some of the occasional disappearances and so-called freak accidents that The Daily Prophet had been reporting had a force operating behind it. And from what he had gathered tonight, his family was directly involved. 

“Sirius, I seem to remember that you were friendly with the McKinnon girl, correct?” Lucius had asked after sensing Sirius’ unusually apprehensive state. 

Sirius was caught off guard by the question as he had become accustomed to being completely ignored at family functions and he didn’t think that Lucius had ever paid him much mind during their time together at Hogwarts. 

“Er...yeah she’s in my year and we’re on the quidditch team together,” Sirius stated. 

“From what you know does it seem like the whole family is opposed to the cause or is it only her father that seems particularly stubborn?” 

Sirius had to stifle a laugh at the thought of Marlene McKinnon being mates with anyone seated at this particular table or associating with anyone Lucius Malfoy considered a friend. 

“Depends....what’s the mission of this so-called ‘cause’?” Sirius asked in a weak ploy to play dumb. 

“Don’t be daft, cousin,” Bellatrix chastised. “The movement is coming where the real witches and wizards are going to reclaim our society and build the world anew.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows at his eldest cousin, “Real witches and wizards?” 

“Purebloods like our own ancient and noble families that have had magic passed down from generation to generation,” she replied with a sickening smile. “Gone will be the days of hiding from Muggles and accommodating Mudbloods into our society.” 

“Right,” Sirius started in a bored tone at his cousin’s fanaticism. “See I don’t think Marlene would be too keen on this ‘cause’ seeing as her best mate is Muggle-born. Also, I’d count the family out as the last time I checked, her brother was dating a Muggle girl.”

Sirius embellished the bit about the Muggle girl at the end because he knew it would throw his family into a fit. He wasn’t disappointed. 

Narcissa’s jaw dropped in shock at this scandalous bit of information. Rudolphus spat on the ground. Bellatrix slammed her fist on the table. Lucius, however, remained cool and calculated. 

After a moment, he tutted, “Hm such a shame. It would do well to have a reputable family like the McKinnon’s join our ranks.” 

“Blood traitors,” Bellatrix hissed. “Just as bad as that Potter fool and his wife.” 

Sirius froze. The mere mention of his best friend’s surname already had him on the defensive. Regulus watched his oldest brother cautiously, praying that the subject would change. 

“Oh that old man,” Walburga cackled. “They may be purebloods, but they have some nerve looking down upon the House of Black. The Potters were nobodies in our society until Fleamont created that foul potion.” 

Sirius clenched his fist. Enraged at the thought that his mother believed that were morally and socially better than the Potters, who were arguably the kindest and most gracious people that Sirius had ever met in his life. He wouldn’t sit here while his family cracked jokes at their expense. 

“Speaking of blood traitors, isn’t that Dorcas broad you were talking about earlier one of Dromeda’s old school pals?” 

While Lucius had alluded to his cousin earlier in the evening, it was far different than mentioning her by name. The mood around the dinner table turned in an instant. Sirius noticed that he could nearly find a pair of similar reactions around the table. 

Orion and Cygnus sat stoically as twin statues. 

Lucius and Rudolphus stared at their plates uncomfortably. 

Narcissa and Regulus stared, wide-eyed at Sirius with a mixture of shock and fear. Regulus even had a bit of pleading in his gray eyes. 

Walburga and Bellatrix glared at Sirius as if their stares would make him drop dead. 

Druella was the hardest to read. It was an unspoken rule in the family that once your face was blasted off the family tree, that those still within the family were never to mention that person again. If removed from the Great and Noble House of Black you had ceased to exist. But that was all easier said than when the traitor wasn’t your child. 

“Boy…” Orion broke the silence with a low growl. 

“No, no brother,” Cygnus cut in. “The boy simply asked a question and I’d be happy to oblige. Yes, Dorcas and Andromeda used to be quite close even long before they started together at Hogwarts. Our families have been close for generations, and as the girls were the same age we thought it was only natural to befriend one another.” 

“Don’t let that tarnish your thoughts of Dorcas though,” Bellatrix cut in. “After all she also cut off our sister after she started seeing th-that mu--”

“Muggleborn?” Sirius offered. 

Regulus buried his face in his hands. 

“Well that is the politically correct term for them,” Lucius said with a cool chuckle. “Being forced to interact with them at school, eloping with one is an entire other business. Wouldn’t you say, Sirius?” 

Regulus stared at his brother, silently begging for him to drop it. 

“Why would I say that? Ted’s is an outstanding bloke, a shame I didn’t pick him up myself if I do say so myself,” Sirius lashed back sarcastically. “Dora is cute to boot as well, so not much to be said against shaking up with muggle-borns if that is what I’m working off of.” 

Druella slammed her hands down on the table, “Do not speak of the mudblood and half-breed in front of me.” 

Her tone was low and dangerous enough for Sirius to drop his sarcastic facade. 

“That your grandchild, Auntie,” Sirius stated earnestly. He looked around the table hoping he could at least convince Cissy and Regulus to see his side of things, but they refused to meet his eyes. “You can’t ju-” 

“Get out,” Walburga whispered. 

All the heads at the table snapped toward the Black matriarch in shock. This wasn't nearly the worst of what Sirius has done at a family occasion and they had refused to give up on Sirius in order for him to carry on the family name. 

“Walburga, let’s just calm down,” Orion started. “Sirius doesn’t mean -” 

“OH YES HE DOES,” Walburga shrieked as she stood up swiftly and knocked over her chair. “He means every foul word that he says. That he would rather be with mudbloods, blood traitors and Merlin forbid muggle scum than protect the sanctity of the Black name.” 

Walburga paced the length of the dining room before shrieking again, “KREACHER!” 

The house-elf appeared out thin air, his eyes wide with fear and concern, “Yes, Mistress? Oh please sit down!! Mistress, your nerves please.” 

“Nevermind my nerves, Kreacher,” Walburga ordered as she waved off her elf. “Please show our guests to the parlor room and after that go pack up Master Sirius things.” 

Kreacher ushered everyone out of the room harshly, Regulus tried to remain in the room but Narcissa pulled him firmly by the forearm. He threw Sirius one last pleading look before being forced out of the room by his cousin. 

Sirius stared stoically at his irate mother as she continued to pace to the dining room. Orion made a motion as if to comfort his wife, but was quickly swatted away. 

“Darling, you need to calm down. The boy just likes to test your nerves,” Orion started. “He is still young and naive about the way the world works.”

“Oh do shut up, Orion,” Walburga sneered. “You can’t possibly be that thick. Do you think that this little dinner with your family is a quaint little visit to check up on us? It’s a warning to either pledge our full allegiance to this Dark Lord of theirs or suffer with the rest of the filth that they seek to destroy.” 

Orion sighed and hung his head in defeat. 

“We can support their cause, it may be more extreme than what you and I would prefer but I know better than to pick the wrong side.” 

Sirius let us a bark of laughter. 

“You think this Dark Lord nutter is on the right side? How hateful can you be?” 

Walburga whipped out her wand in a blink and waved it in a swishing motion that sent her son flying into the wall. Sirius blinked a few times in pain and tried to regain his bearings as Walburga towered over him. 

“I don’t care what this Dark Lord believes, boy,” Walburga sneered down to her son. “What I do care about is that he is making connections with powerful people that I don’t wish to cross. Pledging our allegiance to him could protect this family.” 

Sirius moved to sit up but remained cautious as his mother still had her wand aimed at his face. 

“But you with your delusional notions about Muggles, mudbloods, blood traitors, and half breeds - you, my son, would get us killed in this new world that this Dark Lord is trying to create.” 

“I’d rather be dead than live in your intolerable world,” Sirius spat at his mother. Walburga silently waved her wand again and Sirius felt as if he had been punched in the face. 

It was then that Kreacher re-entered the room with a sharp crack. The house-elf glanced anxiously between his beloved mistress and her son. 

“Well,” Walburga started. “Have his bags been packed?” 

“Yes, Mistress! All of Master Sirius things are packed in his trunk,” Kreacher answered, his eyes wide with fear. 

“Thank you, Kreacher,” she replied. “That will be all for this evening. Please go attend to our guests.” 

Kreacher nodded quickly and disapparated with another sharp crack. 

“As of tonight, you are no longer a part of this family,” Walburga said quietly to Sirius. “You are a danger to your father and me. More importantly, you’re a danger to your brother and we cannot allow you to fill his head with your filth.” 

Walburga forced her son up to his feet with her wand and flung him into the hallway. 

“You are never to come back to this house,” she continued. “We will forbid Regulus to contact you at school and you would do well not to speak to him either.” 

With another wave of her wand, Walburga opened the front door of Grimmauld place and send his trunk flying out onto the sidewalk. It wasn’t until Sirius landed harshly at the bottom of the stairs that led to the front door that he had no plan in place for his parents throwing him out of the house. 

“Where am I supposed to go?” He asked his mother feebly. 

“I don’t care,” Walburga answered coldly as she slammed the door shut. 

Sirius blinked a few times before standing up and gathering his trunk. He drifted down the streets of London and passed strangers, who looked at the disheveled teen with caution. 

Think, Sirius, he thought to himself. Where can I go? Where is it safe? 

Then suddenly it hit him and he couldn’t even believe that he had been so foolish for not considering it before. 

“James,” he whispered. He threw his trunk open and dug through his things for his wand. As soon as he found it, Sirius was startled by a deafening BANG as a triple-decker bus appeared out of thin air. 

The bus stopped abruptly a foot away from where Sirius was sitting and the doors opened to reveal a balding middle-aged man with coke bottle glasses. The man gave Sirius a toothy smile before launching into his greeting. 

“‘Ello welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport the stranded witch or wizard. My name is Ernie Prang and I will be your conductor this evening. Where can we take you this evening, laddy?” 

“Godric’s Hollow,” Sirius answered in a rushed voice. 


	3. Welcome Home

Many miles away from London, James Potter slept heavily in his parents' home in the village of Godric’s Hollow. James was dreaming that he was flying high above the Quidditch pitch on the grounds of Hogwarts as the crowds cheered him on, but he was keener on a certain redhead looking at him with a rare look of admiration that propelled him forward. Suddenly, James felt the quaffle appear in his hands and he rushed towards the Keeper clad in green robes. 

He noticed the Keeper wore a strange mask, which struck him as odd as it was not regulation. As James flew closer, he noticed that it was a metallic, skeletal mask and he sputtered to a halt as the Keeper opened his mouth as if to let out a scream. Instead, a snake slowly slithered its way out of the Keeper’s mouth and circled its head. James was frozen with fear and looked around to realize that he was completely abandoned on the pitch as a gray mist ushered over the grounds. 

Suddenly, James felts two pairs of strong arms hoist him off of his broom. He looked at his captors and saw that they wore the same masks as the Keeper, but remained wordless. James feebly kicked his feet in the open air as if he could make an object to suddenly appear beneath him out of sheer will. 

“Why are you doing this?” he gasped. 

“You can’t run forever,” one of his captors replied in a snake-like hiss.  _ Wake up, _ James thought suddenly.

“Run from what?” He asked again. 

“It's coming for you all,” the captor hissed back. “You best open your eyes to what is to come before it's too late.” 

“What’s coming?” 

_ Wake up.  _

“A war,” the masked captor replied before letting go of James and sent the teen plummeting to the ground. 

James’ eyes shot open and he tried to sit up but found that a pair of hands were grasping his shoulders. James blindly tried to fight off the unknown person. 

“PRONGS! Prongs, it's me mate,” a familiar voice whisper-yelled at his friend. “Calm down, you git or you’ll wake up your parents.” 

“Sirius?” James asked with a blink as he reached for his glasses on his nightstand. “Blimey, what are you doing here?” 

Sirius sighed, “It's a bit of a long story, but I er flew the coup. Or rather I was thrown from it.” 

It was then that James' eyes finally adjusted to the assistance of his glasses and he was able to take in the disheveled sight of his best friend. Sirius’ usually handsome face was bruised and though he was wearing dress robes, there were tears and rips in them. 

“Bloody hell, Pads,” James gasped. “What did they do to you?” 

“Honestly this isn’t even the worst of what the wench has done to me, Prongs. I just... pushed her buttons too far in front of the family and scumbag guests.”

James stared at his friend stoically, he could tell that Sirius wasn’t lying to him. But he also knew his friend well enough to know that he wasn't telling him the full story either. 

“Mate, I promise I’ll give you all the gory details later but right now I need to know if I can crash here. It might just be until things calm down at home but….It looks like it's going to be more permanent than that.” 

“Of  _ course,  _ you can crash here,” James assured him. “Mum and Dad would be more than happy to have you stay here, but you know they are going to ask questions about the bruises. And you know that Effie has just been itching to get into a duel with dear old Walburga after she was a foul bitch to Moony’s mum after third year.” 

Sirius chuckled dryly, “Any chance that Tilly has some bruise removal paste we could nick from the cupboard?” 

At the mention of the Potter’s house-elf, a sharp snap filled the air and the lights in James’ room suddenly flicked on. 

“Mr. James, do you need something? I thought I heard…” the small elf trailed off, and her already giant eyes grew two sizes wider at the sight of Sirius Black. 

“Tilly, Tilly, please don--” James feebly tried to shush the house elf. But it was too late and she was already calling for extra help. 

“Miss Effie, Mr. Monty come quick - it's young Sirius!”

James and Sirius could hear the pitter-patter of the Potters before they burst into the room. Euphemia and Fleamont took in the sight of the disheveled boy they had become so fond of over the years. The adults and teens stared at each other in a few moments of shocked silence. 

“Mum, Dad, I can -” James started but Euphemia held up a hand to silence him. 

“Tilly, can you go put on a fresh kettle and set up some cups down in the parlor? Be sure to make yourself a cup as well,” the middle-aged witch gently commanded. Tilly quickly nodded in response before popping out of the room. “James, Monty, you two need to go set up a guest room. Sirius looks like he will need a good bed to lie down in. James, there are extra blankets in the cupboard down the hall.” 

“But -” James started to argue. 

“Now, James,” Euphemia stated sternly. “We will all talk about what brought Sirius to us down in the parlor but I need you to set up a room first.” 

James nodded meekly before exiting the room. Fleamont shared a quick, cautious look with his wife before following his son down the hall as well. 

Euphemia redirected her attention to Sirius, who usually looked so handsome, confident, and bursting with life while in her presence. The boy that stood in front of her now seemed smaller somehow like he was lost or broken. It was also unusual that Sirius had remained silent this entire time, which did not go unnoticed by Euphemia this entire time and it was the primary reason she sent her boys out of the room. 

She walked slowly toward her son’s best friend and gingerly reached out to him. Instinctively, he pulled away as if she was about to strike him. Euphemia gave the young boy a sad, reassuring smile. 

“I promise I won’t hurt you, Sirius,” she said quietly, “I just want to get a better look at you. Is that ok?”

Sirius looked almost embarrassed but nodded nonetheless and Euphemia gently traced the bruise that outlined his left eye. 

“Tilly has a paste that will clear this up by morning, so don’t worry about that handsome face of yours,” Euphemia quipped in order to lighten the mood. Sirius reluctantly gave a small smile in response. 

She then placed both of her hands on either side of Sirius’ face to make sure he was looking her directly in the eye when she told him. “You’re better than the whole lot of them. Do you hear me?”

Sirius' eyes brimmed with tears and he quickly bowed his head. Euphemia still held his face in her hands and asked again, “Do you hear me?”

He nodded and Euphemia enveloped the young boy into her arms to let him unleash all of his anguish and hurt. She didn’t know how long she stood in her son’s room, holding Sirius Black as he sobbed but soon enough her husband gently knocked at the door and the two pulled apart. 

“The bedroom and parlor are all set up whenever you’re ready, lad.” Fleamont shared. Sirius wiped his face and let out a cough before finally speaking

“We’re all good here, Mr. P,” Sirius replied. “Better head downstairs before James sends out the owls to the lads that I’m on suicide watch.” 

“Bold of you assume I haven’t done so already!” James called from down the hall. Euphemia huffed in half-annoyance and Sirius let out a bark of laughter. 

“Honestly, that boy has no respect for privacy. You’d think we had shipped him off to be raised by mountain trolls.” 

Sirius chuckled and followed the Potters down to the parlor where Tilly had set up tea and biscuits. He thought ‘best to just rip off the band-aid' before recounting the details that led him to flee from Grimmauld Place.


	4. Times They Are A Changin'

As the rest of the summer passed by, the spirits in Godric’s Hollow became much higher. While Euphemia and Fleamont Potter were always ecstatic to have their only son home for the holidays, the addition of James' partner in crime with him at all times seemed to up the antics around the village. It was unusually quiet on the early August morning as Euphemia sipped her tea. She suspected that her son and Siris had gotten into some trouble last evening, which explained their absence from the breakfast table. 

Euphemia glanced at her husband who was reading The Daily Prophet, and her heart sank slightly when she read the headline on the front page. 

‘VANISHED: EDWIN WAGNER STILL MISSING -  _ The young wizard disappeared a year ago and Ministry sources share that the Aurors are no closer to finding new clues. _ ” 

She let out a deep sigh, “Any news on the Wagner lad?” 

Fleamont shook his head solemnly, “Nothing new - they seem adamant that this bloke is an upstanding citizen and didn’t seem to have any issues going on in his personal life either. Seems like his parents are muggles so they’re having a hard time understanding the many ways a wizard could just vanish. I spoke to Ewan about it though and it seems like the Aurors are suspecting foul play”

Euphemia pursed her lips as she thought of the two boys sleeping peacefully upstairs without a care in the world and how she would burn down the earth to search for them if they ever went missing. Of course, James was her only child but she had grown fond of Sirius over the years and this summer had made her view her son’s best friend as her own child. 

“Do you suspect that he’ll still come to dinner this evening with Siobhan and the kids?” 

Fleamont sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose he’ll do his best to get here if he can pry himself away from the office. I know he loves our end of summer tradition just as much as the kids do, but if this is as bad as he thinks it is I’d imagine he’s pulling long hours.” 

Euphemia folded her arms, “Well let’s just hope that Ewan’s hunch is wrong and that this Wagner boy just got himself stuck in a vanishing cabinet. Now,  _ I’m _ going to wake those boys up to help Tilly get ready for our visitor.” 

Euphemia marched herself up to her son’s room. Despite setting Sirius up in the guest room, the boys determined that they much rather preferred to share a room. She smiled fondly as she looked at the young boys, James was laid out spread eagle across his bed with his unruly hair sticking out in all directions and his mouth hanging open with drool with half his body under his blanket. Sirius on the other hand was curled up in the fetal position with his blanket tucked up to his chin. 

Euphemia’s smile suddenly turned mischievous as she raised her wand to her throat and let out in a booming voice, “RISE AND SHINE, BOYS.” 

James fell out of his bed with an ungraceful thump as Sirius sat up quickly asking, “Wazhappening?” 

“Good morning,” Euphemia said in a sickly sweet tone. “From the stale smell of Firewhiskey I can smell in the air, I gather you two had an exhilarating evening?” 

James groaned in response, which his mother took as a confirmation. 

“Lovely, well what better way to get over a hangover than to help Tilly get ready for the McKinnon’s visit for this evening?” 

“I can think of a few million better ways,” Sirius responded dryly. 

“Cheek will get you nowhere my dear,” the old witch warned. “Come on now, Tilly has breakfast ready for the both of you.” 

The teens did as Euphemia said, but they didn’t necessarily do it quietly. 

After breakfast, they did help Tilly clean the house and prepare the dining room for the McKinnons visit. Admittedly the house-elf did most of the work, and even though the Potter parents did spoil their son rotten at times they did believe it was an important life lesson for James to learn the value of hard work and respecting the work that Tilly does around the house to help make their lives run a bit smoother. 

The McKinnons and Potters families have been lifelong friends. Their mothers had been housemates together during their time at Hogwarts, they along with Fleamont were placed in Gryffindor. Ewan McKinnon, on the other hand, was placed in Slytherin. The contentious relationship between the two houses had been going on since Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin opened the school with their female counterparts. 

Despite being from different houses, Siobhan and Ewan fell in love with each other when they served as Head Boy and Girl in their final year at school. At first, they had a competitive nature with one another as both enjoyed being at the top of their class, but their competition soon fell into mutual respect of each other's intelligence which gradually turned into a friendship which in turn developed into a courtship. 

At first, Fleamont and Euphemia were wary of Ewan’s intentions due to Syltherin’s nefarious reputation for cruel wizards and affinity toward the Dark Arts. But as they grew to know Ewan, they realized their assumptions were far off base. While Ewan was ambitious and cunning, he held a loyalty for his friends that could far outmatch any Hufflepuff and was one of Fleamont’s fiercest friends. 

Even after their days at school, the four friends remained close. Although the Potters wished for a child of their own, they struggled to conceive but that did not stop them from doting on the McKinnons two young sons, Connell and Finn. Euphemia and Fleamont decided if they couldn’t have a child of their own, they would be the best ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle’ to the two boys. 

Years passed and the couple had long given up on the thought of a child when suddenly Euphemia fell ill. At first, she had chalked it up to a nasty case of the flu but as it carried on she went to see a healer at St. Mungo’s. The couple was in a right state of shock when a healer informed them that Euphemia was pregnant. 

The Potters waited sometime before telling the McKinnons, but as soon as they did Siobahn burst into happy tears and told them that she was expecting as well. The best friends were elated that they were going to each have a child at the same time and joked that the two would be forced to be friends or wind up married. 

Euphemia gave birth to James in late March of 1960, while Siobahn gave birth to her first and only daughter Marlene in early May. As the years passed on the McKinnon siblings took on James as if he were one of their own. It was Connell and Finn that taught James everything he knew about Quidditch and Marlene was determined not to be left out simply because she was a girl, so they taught her as well. Despite the jokes from their mothers that one day they would wind up married, it was evident that James and Marlene viewed each other strictly as siblings. 

As Connell prepared to start his first year at Hogwarts, the Potters and McKinnon's held a small feast at the end of the summer to celebrate the young wizard. This created the longstanding tradition of the two families getting together before the start of another school year. 

The sun was still high in the late afternoon sky when a loud, feminine voice filled up the kitchen at the Potters’ large estate. 

“HELLO Potters,” Marlene McKinnon called out. “Your favorite witch has arrived!” 

Sirius and James grinned at each other before rushing off to the kitchen to greet their friend and housemate. They found Marlene making herself at home at the kitchen table, with her feet kicked up on an adjacent chair trying to pop a pumpkin pasty in her mouth. Tilly quickly and sternly swatted the treat out of the blonde’s hand and fixed her with a stern stare. 

“Not yet, Ms. Marlene,” Tilly admonished. “Miss Effie gave me strict instructions to not let you spoil your appetite before dinner.” 

“Damn, she knows me too well,” Marlene cursed. “But you know I can never have too much of your delicious cooking, Tilly.” 

The house-elf beamed at the compliment but remained adamant about keeping any food out of Marlene’s reach. 

“McKinnon,” Sirius drawled. “I didn’t know they let you out before nightfall. Thought the sun would burn you up.” 

James laughed as Marlene fixed Sirius with an almost disappointed look, “Really, is a vampire joke the best you got? I may be able to hypnotize the boys with my beautiful looks, Black, but judging from the steady stream of heartbroken Hufflepuffs last year I think we all know who the real-life sucker is here.”

Sirius was just about to fire a retort before, Marlene’s older brother Finn walked in and playfully smacked his sister upside the head, “Oi! No one wants to hear about you and boys, loudmouth.” 

Marlene rolled her eyes, “I speak nothing but the truth, Finnegan.” 

Siobahn McKinnon entered the kitchen quickly behind her son and narrowed her eyes at her daughter. 

“Marlene, contrary to your beliefs this is  _ not _ your so kick your feet down from the table.” 

“They aren’t on the table, they’re on the chair,” Marlene retorted in a bored voice in an effort to rile up her mother.

“Wonderful, you can save your oh-so-clever argument for when you are the Grand Inquisitor of the Wizengamont,” Siobahn said sternly. “Until then,  _ feet off the table _ .” 

Marlene smirked at her mother but did as she was told. Siobahn turned to the two young boys and a grin stretched across her face. 

“Jamie,” she started as she instinctively tried to straighten out his unruly hair and pulled the young boy in for a tight hug. “How are you doing, lovey?” 

“Can’t complain much,” James replied. “Having Sirius here keeps the boredom at bay.” 

“Ah yes, Sirius! Effie has been telling me you two boys have been driving poor old Bathilda quite mad.” 

Siobahn released James and pulled Sirius in for a hug of his own. While Sirius had met Marlene’s parents a few times before when visiting the Potters, he didn’t think they were close enough to warrant a hug. He returned Siobahn’s hug out of politeness but found her embrace was just as warm and motherly as Euphemia’s the night she held him after he escaped from home. The McKinnon matriarch released her hold on the young boy as the Potters entered the kitchen. 

“Ah! Effie, Monty,” she greeted her hosts with equally warm hugs and kisses on the cheek.

“No Ewan and Connell?” Euphemia asked. 

“They’re still tied up at the ministry,” Siobahn replied. “But Ewan promised they’d be here just in time for dinner. This lot wanted to get here early.” 

Finn popped the pumpkin pasty that Tilly removed from his sister’s grasp into his mouth before speaking, “Yeah, we wanted to get in a game of quidditch before the sun went down. Take advantage of the even numbers.” 

Siobahn gave her son a stern look. 

“Honestly, Finn did you want the Potters and Sirius to think we raised you in a barn?” 

“Whau?” The young boy asked with his mouth still full. 

Despite Shiobahn’s protests, the rest of the room chuckled at Finn. 

“Oh please, Shiv, you think that’s worse than anything we’ve caught James and Sirius doing this summer?” Monty inquired. 

Marlene scrunched her nose in disgust, definitely thinking of something inappropriate. 

“Please spare us the details, Uncle Monty,” she said. This time it was James that playfully smacked her upside the head. “Oi!” 

Marlene swatted a hand back at him and they began to engage in a play fight trying to lay a light blow on one another. 

“Alright, alright, you lot,” Euphemia bellowed. “Monty, take these children down to the field so we can finish setting up for dinner.” 

“As you wish, my dear,” her husband replied with a small bow. “You heard her, kids. Out.” 

The teens rushed themselves out the door and toward the shed where the Potters kept a small collection of broomsticks. They had always kept four on hand for whenever the McKinnons came for a visit so they were able to play while the parents talked or watched their kids compete against one another. 

After a bit of debate, the teens split into their teams. James paired with Finn while Marlene and Sirius were a team of their own. Since it was a four-person match, they settled on only using the quaffle and snitch as the bludgers might serve as an unwanted distraction and no one wanted to risk the wrath of Tilly if they ended up concussed before they had their super. While Marlene was worried that James and Finn may have an unfair advantage as they both played the Chaser position, she found that she and Sirius’ skills balanced each other how where the made a formidable competition. Marlene was the Seeker for the Gryffindor team, which meant she was quick and nimble on her broomstick. Sirius on the other hand was a beater, so he relied on brute force to power through James and Finn’s defensive moves. 

The teams were neck and neck for the most of their match until Marlene caught a glance of the Snitch when she and Sirius were trailing by ten points. After nearly knocking Finn off his broom, Marlene snatched up the golden orb and claimed her team’s victory. On the ground below, she could hear Fleamont cheering below. 

“That my girl!” the old wizard called up to her causing Marlene to beam in elation before flying down to land. 

“Excellent game, boys,” she boasted. 

James frowned at her, “No one likes a gloater, Marlene.” 

“Just as much as they dislike a sore loser,” she quipped back. “Though I don’t know much about losing, so who’s to say?” 

Sirius grinned at his teammate, while Finn rolled his eyes. 

“That being said,” she continued. “ _ Losers  _ will carry the brooms back to the shed.” 

Marlene thrust her broom in her brother’s direction, which Finn stared at in mild annoyance. 

“And why doesn’t James have to help with the brooms?” He asked, 

“Because,” Marlene began with a stern yet pleading look, “I need to tell James and Sirius something, and its best to do it in private.” 

Finn’s eyes softened and with a sigh he gathered up with brooms before walking back towards the Potter manor with Fleamont. 

“What’s so important you couldn’t say it in front of the parents?” Sirius asked. “You didn’t get yourself knocked up, did you, McKinnon?”

The blonde gave her friend a deadpan look as James chuckle, “Har har. I could mention it in front of the parents, but knowing our mothers they would just have a million questions about the whole mess and seeing how the last school year ended...” 

Marlene paused, but the boys knew she was alluding to the scene that transpired beside the Black Lake after the O.W.L.s. The Marauders, particularly James, and Snape had a contentious relationship with one another since their first year. While James felt completely justified at that moment by the lake, he could help but feel rotten to his core when he saw Lily come to breakfast with red, puffy eyes in the final weeks of their fifth year. 

“I just thought it might be best to do this privately,” she finished. “So I’ve invited Lily to come with us to go to Diagon Alley and she’ll be coming with us to King’s Cross as well.” 

“Evans is coming here? To my house?” James asked, failing to give off the nonchalant reaction he had meant to give. 

“Yes, my mum already cleared it with Effie given the...er circumstances,” Marlene answered. “We’ll meet up with Mary once we get to Diagon Alley, but seeing as your mad about Lily I figured I’d give you some warning before you dropped dead of shock before she turns up at your front door.” 

Sirius laughed as James glowered at his surrogate sister. “Okay, fine Evans is coming to my house. So if my parents already know about it why did we have to have this discussion in private?” 

Marlene scratched the back of her head and sighed in frustration before looking directly at James speaking again.

“Listen, I know this is going to sound awkward at first but I need you to promise me that you will lay off of Lily while she is here and I’d like you to keep up that hands-off approach for the rest of this year as well.” 

James blinked in confusion, “Is this about what happened with Snape at the end of the last term? I thought they weren’t even friends after what he called her.” 

“No, it’s not about that...Not entirely, at least, although what you two did to Snape was a bit fucked up,” Marlene replied. 

“Like Snivellus didn’t have it coming,” Sirius interjected indignantly. 

“Listen, I’m not defending Snape but he was Lily’s best friend before Hogwarts, and if anyone had a go at James like you Marauders had a go at him I would react the same way that she did,” she snapped. 

James sighed, “Ok you said this wasn’t about Snape, so what is this really about?” 

Marlene gave her friend a sad look before responding. 

“Lily’s dad died.” 

James hung his head, while Sirius swore in regret. Neither of them had met Mr. Evans but each of them had heard stories about him from Lily and knew how much she loved him. 

“Was it…” James trailed off struggling for the right word to use. 

“Suspicious?” Marlene asked. She had kept James up to date on the whispers she heard from her dad and brother about muggle-borns and their families quietly being targeted in the recent months, so she knew this was a warranted assumption. 

James nodded his head. 

“No it was just a tragic old heart attack,” she responded. “It happened a little over a month ago, so she’s had some time to process it but she got on with her dad, ya know?” 

The boys remained quiet, but Marlene knew they agreed. 

“Anyway, I just thought with her mourning her dad and she’ll be forced to see Snape for the first time in months that you could put a pause on your usual grand gestures of romance,” Marlene continued. James opened his mouth, but she held up a hand to stop him. “I’m not saying you have to shun her, because she’ll need all the friends she can get this year. All I’m asking is that you don’t constantly ask her on dates and proactively antagonize her each chance you get.” 

“I don’t antagonize her,” James argued. 

Sirius made a noise of disagreement, “Hm you actually do, mate. It's like the classic tale of teasing the ones you love.” 

James glared at his best friend. 

“James, just give her a break this year,” Marlene pleaded. “That’s all I ask. Plus, if you actually take the time to be Lily’s friend and really get to know her, you might actually get to see her fun side rather than the Miss Perfect Prefect side of her that you tend to do.” 

James let out a huff of defeat, “Alright, I promise. No date proposals and no antagonizing.” 

Marlene beamed at the messy hair boy and pulled him in for a tight hug. 

“Thank you! Now let’s go eat, I am famished from my many victories today.” 

As the three teens walked up the hill they could make out that two more figures had joined the party. 

“Connell and your dad must have gotten here,” James noted, but as the teens approached they could hear the adults talking in hushed voices. 

“So you're saying that you’re certain that this Wagner lad’s disappearance isn’t an accident?” Fleamont asked his friend. 

Ewan McKinnon sighed deeply, “From our investigation, it doesn’t seem like the boy was daft enough to get himself accidentally sent away anywhere and from our interviews with his friends, family, and coworkers the boy seemed to be an upstanding wizard…” 

“But we have a new trainee in the Auror’s Department,” Connell jumped in. “She was in my year at Hogwarts, but she was in Slytherin and ran with the crew of real pureblood fanatics, she’s pointed out some names that we should take a deeper look into some of their families. According to her, some of them have joined some sort of secret organization.” 

“Secret organization?” Euphemia asked incredulously. Ewan gave his eldest son a dark look but nodded his head. 

“Yes, and given this girl’s prior er  _ acquaintances _ I was reluctant to believe her,” Ewan started, “But the more she started to share, the more things began to add up.” 

“Like what?” Finn asked his dad. 

“Edwin Wagner hasn’t been the first muggle-born wizard to vanish without a trace,” the older wizard answered. “These disappearances have been spread out over the years, so the Ministry never spotted the pattern but now Muggles are starting to drop dead. The muggle police can’t trace a cause, but we got called in and we’re certain that the killing curse was used against them.” 

“Merlin,” Euphemia gasped. “So you think this secret organization is behind all of these disappearances and murders?” 

Ewan nodded his head, “I do.”

“What is its purpose? What do they gain from any of this?” 

If possible, Ewan’s eyes grew even darker. 

“I think they want to wipe Muggles as well as Muggle-born witches and wizards of the face of the earth, and they’ll take out anyone who tries to stop them.” 

James, Sirius, and Marlene stayed hidden in the shadows and exchanged worried glances with one another. James suddenly recalled the dream he had the night that Sirius had come to seek shelter with the Potters - a war was coming, and they’d better be ready for when it did. 


	5. Blinding

Dorcas panted in panic and crouched behind a broken wall for cover. Jets of red light were flying around the room, blinding seeking hidden targets. 

“ _Think, Dorcas, think_ ,” she silently told herself. “ _There has to be a way out of this. Scan the room._ ”

Dorcas quickly a protection charm around herself that would give herself enough time to get the landscape of what she was up against. She could see the Prewett brothers were tucked behind a wall, they were taking turns providing coverage so the other could cast a stunning spell against their attackers. In one corner, Hestia Jones was in a one on one duel against a masked figure. They were outnumbered and they were losing, there was no denying that.

“ _Call for back up_ ,” Dorcas thought to herself. “ _Conjur a patronus to go to the Auror department for reinforcements._ ” 

Dorcas crouched back down behind the wall and whipped out her wand. 

“Expecto patronum,” she said in a rushed voice. A flimsy stream of silver light ejected from her wand, but it wasn’t enough power to send a message. “Come on…. _expecto patronum_.” 

Still nothing. Dorcas heard a pained grunt that was quickly followed by a hard thump. 

“ _Must be one of the Prewett’s_ ,” she thought to herself again. She stole another glance over the wall to see that Hestia and Fabian were still battling the unknown attackers. “ _Hiding isn’t doing you any good. Time to join the fight._ ”

Dorcas thrust herself on the ground and pointed her wand at Hestia’s attacker. 

“Petrificus totalus,” she shouted. The figure seized up and toppled to the ground. Hestia threw Dorcas a look of gratitude. 

“Nice one!” She exclaimed, but the face quickly tensed as she looked beyond her savior and sent a jet of light streaming past Dorcas’ head. Dorcas heard a thump behind her but didn’t waste her time in given her would-be attacker a glance. Instead, she and Hestia sent silent jinxes and hexes flying towards the four figures that were closing in on the Prewett brothers. Dorcas knocked out one assailant as her partner was locked into another one-on-one fight. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Dorcas noticed that a beam from the ceiling began to fall and thought of how she could use it to her advantage. She quickly threw up a protection charm that would save her a few seconds as she froze the beam mid-fall and shifted its trajectory to knock the remaining two attackers off of their feet. Dorcas beamed in triumph as she rushed forward to help the brothers when suddenly she was knocked off of her feet. 

Dorcas groaned as her body collided with the ground, cursing herself for not checking the room before rushing to aid her friends. 

“What did you forget to do Ms. Meadows?” A gruff voice asked the young witch. 

Dorcas propped herself up to glare at her supervisor, who looked back at her expectantly. 

“Forgot to check my corners,” she grumbled in reply. “It won’t happen again.”

“It best not. Especially when you’re out in the field where we must always practice what, class?” 

“Constant vigilance,” the group replied reluctantly. A pair of strong hands helped Dorcas to her feet, and she gave Gideon Prewett a thankful smile. 

“Moody’s laying it on a bit thick, don’t ya think?” He whispered to her. Dorcas bit back a smirk. 

“Something you want to share with the rest of us, Prewett?” Alastor Moody barked back. The younger wizard straightened up, not willing to test the patience of his boss. 

“No, sir.” 

Moody gave Gideon a suspicious look and returned his attention to the larger group in the room. 

“On the whole, you lot didn’t totally bungle your final training session,” Moody grumbled. “Although, Meadows may have sent Scrimegour and Dawlish to St. Mungo’s.” 

Dorcas lowered her head sheepishly, thinking that she may have overdone it for a training session. 

“Eh just a couple busted ribs and bruises it seems,” Connell McKinnon called back as he levitated the wooden beam off of the two senior Aurors, “Nothing that we can’t mend here.” 

“Right then. I was fairly pleased by what I saw here today and if Head Auror McKinnon approves it you’ll all be official Aurors,” he told the foursome. The small class of trainees exchanged excited glances with one another but maintained an air of professionalism under the stoic gaze of their supervisor. “You’re all free to go.”

As the Aurors began to filter out of the training room, Moody called out again. 

“Meadows, a word please?” 

Dorcas shot an anxious look to the Prewett twins and Hestia before turning back to her supervisor. 

“Yes, sir?” 

Alastor Moody did a once over of the young woman in front of him. He had to admit that he was one of the many that had reservations about a Meadows joining the rank of the Aurors and suspected that she had signed up to be a pair of eyes on the inside for her nefarious connections. However, a few months into her training Dorcas came to Moody with a list of names that he should look into regarding the disappearance of Edwin Wagner. 

_“I can’t tell you how I know that they’re involved, but I do,” she had told him. “I know my word doesn’t mean much around here, but if you dig into this list and find something, you’ll know you can trust me. If you find nothing, kick me out of the program.”_

She had taken a big bet on her reputation, and it turned out she was right. Edwin Wagner has small connections to the handful of those on the list. Merely classmates during their days at Hogwarts, but as he looked into some of the other names he realized that there was a larger network of powerful, pureblood families that were a part of an organization, or as the members called it _The Cause_. Despite his digging, Moody had not been able to determine who the ring leader of this organization was as many of his informants seemed too afraid to even utter the name. 

“I checked out that list you gave me,” Moody told Dorcas, who straightened her back in preparation for the bad news. “While I’m no closer to finding this Wagner lad, you did put me on the right scent.” 

“You got the to talk about _The Cause_?” 

“I didn’t get any of the members to speak,” he grunted. “However, some low-level, seedy characters that they deal with seem to know enough about this little organization to shed some color. They couldn’t name the leader thought.” 

Dorcas sighed in frustration, “Most people are too afraid to say the name, but I know they call him…” 

“I’m well aware of the Dark Lord moniker, Meadows,” Moody snapped impatiently. “If you know his name it's best you share it now.”

She faltered in half shame and half fear. 

“Out with it, Meadows,” Moody commanded firmly. “If you want the trust of this department, you’re gonna have to tell me a.” 

Dorcas looked Moody directly in his eyes as if to see if he was telling the truth about trusting her and after a moment she nodded her head, “They call him the Lord Voldemort.” 

Moody raised his eyebrows, “Seems like he’s a theatric bloke.”

“The lot of them are theatric and even worse they view this Dark Lord of theirs as if he some kind of god.” 

“When you say they you’re referring to your brother, of course?” 

Dorcas tensed momentarily, “Yes. My brother seems to be one of the biggest fanatics along with Bellatrix Black and the Lestrange brothers.” 

“You must have missed the news in your departure from the evil part of the Sacred 28, but Bellatrix is a Lestrange now as well.” 

Dorcas scoffed, “Simply out of keeping the bloodlines pure and keeping the parents content. There’s no love between her and Rudolphus. She’ll always be Batty Bella Black to me.” 

Moody gave a dry chuckle in return, “Well that maybe, but I didn’t hold you up to talk about the marriage section of Witch Weekly.” 

“I had figured as much,” Dorcas replied with a smirk, surprised that Alastor Moody even knew what Witch Weekly was. 

“I’ve told Ewan McKinnon about your tip and what I was able to gather from it,” he continued. “He agrees that there’s enough evidence to assemble a task force regarding this organization and I’d like you to be a part of it.” 

Dorcas was stunned. “Really?” 

Moody nodded his head earnestly and solemnly. 

“Edwin Wagner had been the first person to go missing under mysterious circumstances. Odd whispers have been going around for about five years now, but it was easy to write them off as coincidence,” Alastor informed the young woman. “This Lord Voldemort and his followers seem to be getting bolder and want it known that they’re behind the chaos. You know these people and you know how they think. That will be a strong asset in this investigation because I think this Wagner lad is just the tip of the iceberg of things to come. So, what do you say?”

Moody held his hand out which Dorcas clasped on to and shook immediately. 

“I’d be honored to be part of the team,” Dorcas responded, she didn’t have to hesitate she wanted to bring these people down. History be damned.

“And one more thing you’ll be my apprentice,” Moody grumbled. “You showed a lot of promise tonight, but you’re going to have to learn out to produce a proper patronus before we put you out into the field.” 

Dorcas glared at the supervisor before spinning on her heel before marching out of the room. 

“We start at dawn on Monday,” the seasoned Auror called after her. 


	6. Sisters of the Moon

Lily Evans heaved her trunk to the bottom of the stairs with a great huff. If it weren’t for the trace, she would be able to magick most of her belongings into her trunk and pack it in her mother’s car without breaking a sweat. Marlene and her parents would be coming to pick up Lily to spend her final days of summer with her best friend and unfortunately her nemesis James Potter. 

“Is that everything, dear?” Judy asked as she exited their small kitchen.

“I just have a small knapsack that I need to grab from upstairs but this is the bulk of it,” Lily replied. She turned to give her mother a good look, to see that her mother was wearing the usual sad smile that Judy usually wore at the end of every summer, but given recent circumstances, it seemed to tug at Lily’s heart more. 

“Mum, I can turn away the McKinnon's when they get here if you’d like me to stay until the end of the summer holiday,” she continued. Judy shook her head vigorously at her youngest daughter. 

“Oh no no, dear,” she said. “Petunia and I will be just fine here. Anyway, it will do you some good to be with your friends. It’s not healthy for all of us to stay cooped up like this forever. Your father would want us to keep going on with our lives.” 

Lily’s eyes welled up with tears as she swooped in to give her mother a tight hug. Judy squeezed her daughter back tightly as if to communicate that everything would be alright. 

“I’m going to miss you,” Lily said, her voice thick with sadness. Judy leaned back and cupped Lily’s face with her hands. 

“And we’ll miss you too, love,” she replied. Lily scoffed at the idea of Petunia missing her, the sisters had avoided each other since the funeral. “None of that, Petunia does love you she just doesn’t understand your abilities and the past few weeks have been the hardest on her.” 

“She understands my powers just fine, Mum,” the redhead retorted. “She either jealous or scared of them so she’s just decided to hate me for having magic. Besides, why does she think that she is to blame for Dad’s death? There was nothing any of us could have done.” 

Judy sighed deeply, “Grief works in funny ways, dear. I pray that you don’t have to face it much, but as you grow older you’ll learn that everyone has their own ways of processing losing a loved one.” 

Lily bit her lip as she thought about her mother’s words. Things had been difficult between the sisters ever since Lily had gotten her letter from Hogwarts and they only have gotten worse after Lily had seen the letter that Petunia wrote to her headmaster. She tried in vain to explain the phenomenon of muggle-born witches and wizards to her sister, but that solidified Petunia’s belief that Lily was both a freak in the ‘normal’ world and the wizarding world. By Christmas of her third year, Lily had mostly given up on trying to have a normal relationship with her sister and was only cordial in order to keep her parents happy. 

For the most part, this arrangement worked for both of them as Lily could always seek solace from her old friend Severus Snape. Often, after the Evans sisters got into an argument with one another, Lily would march herself down to Spinner’s End to gather Severus and would vent to him for hours. He would always offer ways that Lily could get retribution on Petunia, which Lily would laugh off and scold her friend for. But as they grew older, the severe suggestions from Severus became less funny and more worrisome as he began to align himself with some shady classmates. Classmates that regarded a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of their shoe better than they regarded the like of Lily Evans. 

Lily had begged her friend to tell her what value he saw in associating himself with these characters, but Severus could never quite come up with a good enough reason beyond house loyalty. So despite the loyalty to her own house, Lily had defended Severus against James Potter and Sirius Black as well as her own friends that questioned Lily’s sanity forever befriending the greasy-haired boy. Only Marlene was able to understand Lily’s loyalty to Severus because she understood that Lily had regarded Severus as a brother (although Severus Snape certainly did  _ not _ see Lily Evan as a sister) just as Marlena regarded James as a brother. Marlene understood what it was like to be friends with someone who often made decisions against their interests and knew what it was like to forgive them for these shortcomings. While Marlene did not accept Snape with open arms, she never judged Lily for remaining a loyal friend to him. 

That was until last June when Severus decided to change the course of their friendship forever by calling her the foulest name that he could think of. Lily knew that he was embarrassed and hurt by the unwarranted attack from James Potter and his gang of Marauders, but she had done nothing to deserve the sharp rebuke from her so-called best friend. She supposed it was only a matter of time before Severus had shown his true colors as he often looked down upon their muggle-born classmates, but it still hurt. 

Lily also couldn’t ignore the worrisome situation that was brewing in the wizarding world. It was only yesterday that she was reading The Daily Prophet’s report on the disappearance of Edwin Wagner, a muggle-born wizard. Also, the crew that Severus continued to cozy up with at school had only grown more wicked and sinister as they grew older, as if to prove themselves to some unknown force. Lily only had two years left at school but she couldn’t help but shake the feeling the people would soon have to choose a side and she knew that she was probably on the side that would be made a target. At home Lily, bore this burden of her knowledge by herself because she knew her mother would try to shield her from any danger if she knew of the prejudices against muggle-born witches and wizards. 

Lily snapped herself out of her thoughts and marched herself back up the stairs to gather her knapsack before the McKinnons arrived. On her way back downstairs, Lily hesitated at Petunia’s bedroom door before gently knocking. 

There was no answer. 

“Tuney?” Lily asked quietly. “Tuney, I know you’re in there and you don’t need to open the door, but I just wanted to say goodbye before I left for school…” 

Lily waited for a moment in case her sister changed her mind about opening the door, but Petunia showed no signs of weakening her resolve. 

“Right, Anyway I just want you to love that I love you and I’ll miss you,” Lily continued. “I know that it can get pretty boring around here...if you ever want to write to me I would really like to keep in touch...if not I guess I’ll just see you at Christmas.” 

There was a knock at the Evan’s front door and Judy called up the stairs. 

“LILY, the McKinnons are here!”

“COMING,” Lily called back. She turned back to the closed door and rested her palm on the door before whispering. “Bye, Tuney.” 

Lily took off down the stairs where her and Marlene’s squeals of excitement carried throughout the entire house as the three parents chuckled at their daughters. 

In a small bedroom upstairs, Petunia Evans stood with her palm pressed up against the door. Standing as a mirror image of her sister before she had taken off to greet her school friend. Tears silently streamed down the older sister's face as she cursed herself for not opening the bedroom door when she had the chance to. 

“Bye, Lily,” she whispered back to the empty space. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is kind of a short and sweet chapter but there are a few long ones in the works right now. But I wanted to have a chapter that kind of summarizes Lily's complex relationships with Petunia and Severus.


	7. King and Lionheart

James Potter kept pacing the floor of his kitchen. Marlene would be arriving with Lily Evans any moment and despite promising his friend that he would back off of the object of his affection for the past five years, he couldn’t fight off the bundle of nerves building in his stomach. Fleamont and Sirius were reading their own sections of the morning edition of The Daily Prophet as Euphemia sipped her tea and watched her son with an amused expression. Fleamont and Euphemia were well aware of James’ crush on the muggle-born witch as Marlene and Sirius incessantly tease her son about his failed attempts to persuade Lily Evans to go out with him.

Euphemia was always nervous that her and Fleamon’s doting on James for his entire life would lead to him having an inflated perception of himself, and although she would never admit it to James she thought it was good that there was at least one person that could keep James humble. 

“James dear, you’re going to burn a hole through the floorboards with all of your pacing,” she chided her son. James gave a startled jump as if he had forgotten that there we other people in the room. “I’m sure this girl doesn’t bite.” 

“Oh you’ll love her, Mrs. P,” Sirius chimed in not looking up from the paper. “But James  _ does _ have a nasty habit of making a git out of himself whenever he’s around Lily Evans.” 

James glared at his best friend and responded in a deadpan voice, “Thanks for that, Padfoot.” 

Fleamont let out a hefty chuckle at the boys’ antics. 

“I’m quite excited to meet this girl as well,” he chortled. “Or at the very least, see her take the piss out of dear old Jamie.” 

James continued to glower as the room failed to contain their laughter. Suddenly, the kitchen door snapped open and Marlene McKinnon burst in with her arms full of luggage. She locked eyes with James, immediately clocking how nervous he was, and gave him a devious smirk. 

“Potter family and parasite,” Marlene bellowed as Euphemia and Fleamont raised their eyebrows in amusement and Sirius threw his hands up in annoyed protest. “May I present Lily Evans!”

Marlene stepped aside to reveal her redheaded friend who looked somewhat flustered at Marlene’s behavior but gave the people around the kitchen a timid smile nonetheless. Lily gave a sudden jump as a loud crack filled the room and Tilly appeared in front of her. 

“Hello, miss!” Tilly greeted Lily warmly as she reached out her small arms to take Lily’s bags out her hands. “I can take these up to the room that you’ll be sharing with Miss Marlene.” 

“Oh,” Lily said hesitantly as she looked to Marlene for assistance. “Are you sure you won’t need any help?” 

To her surprise, the house-elf almost looked offended at Lily’s question. 

“Don’t worry, Evans,” Sirius said with a chuckle. “If you try to lift a finger to help with housework, Tilly here might challenge you to a duel.” 

Tilly whipped around in a panic at Sirius’ accusation, fearing that her masters might believe him. 

“Tilly would  _ never _ ! She woul -” the elf began before Fleamont cut her off in an effort to calm her down. 

“We know, Tilly,” the old wizard said with a kind smile. “Sirius here was just making an innocent joke.” 

It was now Tilly’s turn to glower at Sirius Black, who was returning an innocent smile, “Young Sirius and Master James’ jokes will be the death of Tilly.” 

“That makes two of us, Tilly,” Lily quipped behind her. The house-elf beamed up at the young witch for her support before gathering up all of the luggage and disappearing from the room with a snap. Lily glanced at Euphemia and Fleamont her shy smile returning to her face as she moved forward to shake their hands. 

“Well as Marlene so casually announce I’m Lily.” 

“Lovely, to finally meet you, dear,” Euphemia said. “These three have told us so much about you!” 

“Yes, from what Sirius tells us you give our son a run for his money,” Fleamont said as he shook her hand enthusiastically. Lily giggled as James turned a shade of scarlet she had never seen on him before. 

“Well I’m not sure about that,” she said modestly before narrowing her eyes at James “Although, he is being unusually quiet at the moment.” 

All the heads turned towards James, who seemed to be struggling for a reason why he hasn’t spoken up yet. Marlene stared at him as if to silently communicate to remember the promise he had made a few days ago. 

“Er uh, hullo Evans,” he stammered stupidly. Lily gave him a confused look, somewhat surprised that he wasn’t ready with a smart or cheeky remark. Sirius turned to Euphemia and Fleamont with his eyebrows raised as if to say, ‘ _ You see what I mean? _ ’ 

“Anyway,” Lily continued side-eyeing James suspiciously, “Thanks again for letting me stay here for the last week of summer, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, it’s really kind of you!”

“Oh nonsense my dear,” Euphemia said with a wave of her hand. “We love to have a full house! We expect the other boys will be here by this evening as well.” 

“Oh are Remus and Peter coming as well?” She asked in surprise. Marlene hadn’t mentioned them on their journey, but the more Lily thought about it she should have assumed that the Marauders we have a reunion before making their grand return to Hogwarts. 

“Oh yes,” Euphemia replied, “Whenever they’re able to the boys and Marlene spend the last week of summer together.”

“And yet, she accuses  _ me _ of being the parasite,” Sirius chimed in. 

“We’ve already had this debate of who the life sucker is between us, Black,” Marlene replied in a bored tone as she kicked the chair she was sitting in up onto its hind legs and placing her hands behind her head. “I believe you lost the argument.” 

Sirius quickly nudged one of Marlene’s unstable chair legs, which almost sent her crashing to the ground before she caught herself. She fumed at Sirius as he bolted out of the kitchen and she went sprinting after him. 

“Get back here, you  _ git _ !” She shrieked after him. Fleamont barely even glanced up from reading The Daily Prophet before pilfering the section that Sirius had been reading, seemingly used to this behavior from his two guests. 

Lily and James were also used to this behavior from Marlene and Sirius as the two had a relationship that seemed nearly as hot and cold as their own. However, where James and Lily seemed to be polar opposites of one another, Marlene and Sirius were the exact same person just different in their genders. They both had hot tempers that led them to act before thinking, they were each wickedly talented at Quidditch and got good marks in school. When it came to relationships, Marlene and Sirius didn’t have a shortage of potential suitors but they both seemed to be allergic to committing when things began to look serious. These similarities led the two to clash heads quite often, but they were joined together by their fierce loyalty to James and Marlene was always quick to make a cover story for Marauders whenever they were in a bind with teachers. 

“Well, I don’t expect those two to resolve that issue any time soon,” Mrs. Potter said determinedly as she turned to her son. “James be a sweetheart and show Lily to her room.” 

Lily shifted on her feet awkward as James nodded, his cheeks flushing pink again. 

“Right, this way, Evans,” he said not quite meeting Lily’s eyes as he led her out of the kitchen. 

After the two teens left, the Potters shared a knowing look with one another. 

“I think Sirius was right,” told her husband. “I  _ am _ going to like this girl.”

Fleamont let out a hearty laugh of agreement, “Oh James doesn’t even stand a chance, love.”

\-- 

James and Lily hit the second-floor landing and walked down the hall to the room that Lily and Marlene would be sharing for the week. James still was being uncharacteristically quiet, which was shockingly driving Lily quite mad. She usually couldn’t get James Potter to keep his mouth shut around her, but she found that his silence was a bit unnerving. 

“So,” she piped up breaking the silence. “How was your summer?” 

“Well it was pretty boring until Sirius showed up,” he answered honestly. “How was yours?” 

James immediately cringed at the automatic reply that he gave Lily, “Sorry! I mean Marlene told me about - well you know - but I didn’t --” 

“Potter, POTTER,” Lily cut him off. To his surprise, Lily was giving him a warm, understanding smile. “I know you didn’t mean anything by the question. Marlene already gave me the heads up that she told you and Black about my dad.” 

James visibly relaxed and sighed, “I am sorry though about your dad.” 

“Thanks, me too,” Lily said politely and stepped around James to her room trying to change the subject quickly. “Marlene also gave me a very abbreviated story that Black is now living with you.” 

James nodded as he followed Lily into the room, “Yeah but er best to not bring it up with him. Sirius is a bit touchy about that.” 

“Totally understand,” Lily nodded earnestly. Another awkward silence filled the room and Lily continued to wonder what the bloody hell was going on with James Potter. Maybe he had taken what she had said to him down by the lake back in June to heart? Maybe seeing his best friend get disowned by his own family made him grow up a bit? Or maybe the sinister whispers going around the wizarding community about odd disappearance and dark wizards has put him on edge? 

Suddenly Sirius burst into the room, carrying Marlene over his should as she laughed and hit his back while screaming, “PUT ME DOWN, YOU IDIOT!” 

“As you wish, milady,” he replied. 

Sirius dropped the blonde onto her bed unceremoniously and Marlene propped herself onto her elbows and she playfully glared at him, “Such a gentleman.” 

Marlene turned to look at Lily and James apprehensively to gauge if they were arguing with each other per usual. 

“Settling in alright?” She asked tentatively. 

Lily nodded again, “Yep, but I’m not entirely sure that this is James Potter or someone that’s taken some polyjuice potion because he is not being his usual git-like self.” 

Sirius let out his signature barklike laughter and plopped himself onto the bed next to Marlene. 

“I think Prongs here is still recovering from the verbal lashing you gave him at the end of the last term, Evans,” he said covering for his best friend. Lily raised an eyebrow at the long-haired boy. 

“Would you say it was an unearned lashing?” She asked in a dangerous tone. 

Sirius pretended to contemplate the question before responding, “This seems like a trick question.” 

“You would be correct in your assumption,” Lily replied with a smirk as she moved to sit on her own bed. “When do you expect Remus and Peter to be here?” 

“Suspect Mr. Lupin will drop them off around supper,” James finally piped in. “Remus’ mum wouldn’t be able to find the manor seeing as we have some charms on it to prevent muggles from strolling around and seeing Tilly tending to the garden. Also, Peter’s mum works two jobs and she couldn’t take the time off to bring Pete herself.” 

“Fancy a few rounds of exploding snap until the lads get here?” Marlene suggested in order to pass the time and the group nodded. 

They spent a few hours playing exploding snap before moving to gobstones and wizard’s chess. Sirius at one point tried to convince Lily to hop on a broomstick for a game of quidditch, which she heartily denied as she very much enjoyed keeping her feet firmly on the ground and whoever would be unfortunate enough to pair with her was sure to lose. As the sun began to set, Euphemia called up with stairs to inform the teens that the rest of their friends has arrived. As the group raced down the stairs to greet Remus and Peter enveloping each other in hugs and asking one another about their summer holidays. 

Euphemia sat back and watched the group with a warm smile, happy at the reunion unfolding in front of her. Suddenly, her thoughts shifted to the warning the Ewan gave the Potters and she couldn’t shake the feeling this group wouldn’t remain innocent children for much longer. 


	8. Meet Me in the Woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay - here is a short and sweet chapter of the Marauders just hanging out and having fun with one another. 
> 
> I hope to get some in-depth chapters out over the holiday weekend, but have really been working on an outline of how I'd like this whole story to play out!

After the splendid dinner that Tilly put together, Peter and Remus got settled in their rooms while Sirius and James built a bonfire for the teens to congregate around. Euphemia and Fleamont announced they were going to McKinnons for a few hours for drinks and to give the teens some privacy. As the parents left, Euphemia made a very pointed request that the boys try not to blow up the entire village while they were gone. As soon as the coast was clear, Sirius and James broke out some firewhiskey, which James had nicked from old Bathilda's place, and Muggle ales that the boys were able to convince a Muggle man to buy them just for this occasion. 

Sirius began to teach the group some muggle drinking games that he had picked up from his times of wandering around London, which most of them were able to pick up fairly quickly. Peter was slower to understand the rules, but Lily was admittedly the least experienced drinker of the group and decided it was best to pace herself rather than make a drunken fool of herself in front of James Potter of all people. Lily sat on a log near the fire sipping on an ale as she listened to Sirius explain the rules of a game called "beer pong" to Marlene and the boys. As they were dividing up the teams, Remus spared a glance at the redhead and decided that he would sit out this round to catch up with his friend instead, leaving James to pair with Peter as Marlene and Sirius were too competitive to take the plump boy as a partner. 

Lily smiled up at Remus as he planted himself next to Lily on the log. Of the four boys, Lily had always been closest with Remus. 

"Alright there, Lils?" he asked, tapping his own cup of ale to hers in a cheers gesture. 

"Can't complain," she responded casually. "Thought it might be best not to try and drink you, boys, under the table as we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow." 

Mrs. Potter would be taking the teens to Diagon Alley in the morning to complete their school shopping before the start of term. Marlene and Lily had made plans with their friend Mary McDonald to get lunch at the Leaky Cauldron to catch up before shopping together.

Remus chuckled, "Very wise of you, indeed, but I'm sure we'll be recruited into playing the winner of this round."

Lily peered back at the table where the rest of their friends continued to play their game. It seemed as if James would be performing better on his own as Peter was not the most athletically gifted among their own. 

"Well, that's assuming that Potter, Black, and Marlene don't kill one another before they finish the game," she replied. "Enough about this stupid game though, how has your summer been? How's your mum holding up?" 

It was no secret among the Gryffindors in their year that Remus missed quite a bit of school. To the public, this was due to Remus' mother being in poor health but has his friends so intimately knew, Remus Lupin was a werewolf. For the most part, Remus thought that Lily Evans was among the many that bought into this fairly shabby excuse of his absences, or at the very least, he believed that she was too polite to question him. 

"Mum's been alright," Remus lied with ease. "Quite honestly, it's been a bit boring being shut in with her and my dad this holiday, but he's happy to get the extra help during the holidays." 

Another lie, if Remus were able to come to the Potters earlier in the summer holiday, he would have jumped at the chance. However, due to his condition, he was forced to stay at home so his parents could help control his transformations. Remus didn't have the heart to tell his father that his friends had worked on going through the ultimate transformation to help make his transformations more bearable. While Remus could be sure that his mother would find peace that his transformations weren't a torturous experience anymore, he couldn't be sure how his father would react. Lyall Lupin and Dumbledore took great strides to ensure that Remus would pose no threat to the other students at Hogwarts. So he expected that his father would be quite disappointed to learn that Remus and his friends went behind the headmaster's back to become Animagi and risk their lives every month.

While James, Sirius, and Peter were safe from Remus' bites when they were in animal form, they did have a few close calls with injuries. Being young and stupid, they were able to laugh most of the incidents off. There was an incident where James almost squashed Peter with his hooves that left the latter a bit shaken. The most serious of these close calls was when Remus broke Sirius's leg near the last term. Wanting to avoid the pointed questions of Madam Pomfrey, James wished to recruit Marlene and Lily to have them help with the healing process after leaving, but the two girls had been ignoring James after his attack on Severus after their O.W.L.s. Surprisingly, it had been Peter to step up to sneak into the hospital wing to steal the skelegro mending potion. Remus had been quite upset that he hurt his friend, but Sirius found the whole situation quite amusing, especially that Peter was the one to resolve the entire situation. Nonetheless, Remus felt it was best that he have a quiet summer with his parents and let his friends use the holiday to learn to master their abilities as Animagi before one of them got seriously hurt or, even worse, killed. 

"You're a good man, Remus Lupin," Lily said, pulling her friend out of his thoughts. "Too good for this lot you ended up with." 

Remus chuckled, wanting to voice his disagreement with Lily, but he would reveal their secret by doing so. 

"Well, I don't know about that, but someone has to keep James and Sirius in line, or Hogwarts would have blown up by now." 

Lily giggled and took another sip of her drink. While she believed that Remus was the most level headed of the four boys, she wasn't daft enough to think that Remus wasn't the mastermind behind some of their best laid out pranks, and he also had a nasty habit of turning a blind eye to their wrongdoings against other students. 

"Lily, I uh...want to apologize for that day down by the lake the last term," Remus told her. Lily glanced back down at her cup, really wanting to forget that day but appreciative that one of the boys was owning up to their own culpability. "I should have stopped James and Sirius from taking things too far but-"

"It's hard to stand up to your friends," Lily cut in with an understanding tone. "I appreciate your apology Remus and honestly, that day was horrible, but maybe it was what I needed to see Severus' true colors." 

"You haven't spoken to him since that day?" 

"He tried apologizing right after, but the damage was already done, and I couldn't keep the wool over my eyes for much longer," she responded. "Not after what he called me and not after what Mulciber did to Mary. I was trying too hard to hold onto the Sev I knew before school, but he's just falling in too deep with bad people." 

Remus nodded, like the rest of his friends did not get along with Severus Snape. After many failed attempts of trying to bust James and Sirius for their mischievous ways, Snape had refocused his attention on trying to figure out where Remus disappeared to each month. This came to Remus's great annoyance and he was even guilty of hexing the greasy teen a few times to get him off his back. However, Remus was much more discrete in his hexes, which gave him the reputation of being the 'nice' marauder. 

"Well, can't say that I'll miss him hanging around," Remus told Lily truthfully. "But I am happy that you'll be spending more time with us instead of that git." 

Lily grinned at her friend, but her gaze shifted to the game behind them and her face contorted into a look of mild disgust mixed with amusement. Remus whipped around to see that Marlene and Sirius were engaged in a frantic makeout session, apparently celebrating their win over Peter and James. The losing team was also staring at their friends in abject horror. 

"Oh well, this won't end well," Remus commented. 

Lily laughed and replied, "I mean, I can't say that I never saw this development coming. I just never expected them to do this so brazenly in front of James." 

"Please, James has been hoping for those two to get together since our third year," Remus informed. "He suspects that their soul mates or something." 

Lily threw her head back and laughed. 

"Never suspected Potter to be a romantic." 

"No?" Remus asked in a surprised tone. "Even after all of the times he's asked you out?" 

Lily wrinkled her nose and responded. "Honestly, I just thought he was more interested in snogging rather than taking me out on a proper date." 

Remus didn't answer right away. It was technically true that James would like nothing more than to snog Lily Evans, but Remus knew that his friend was interested in actually getting to know the redhead on a deeper level. However, he had learned about Marlene's strict instructions for James to lay off of Lily this year and decided that it was best to keep this information to himself for the time being. 

In the distance, they could hear James yelling at his two best friends. 

"Oi! Would you two break it up?" He asked. "If my mum comes home and sees you two behaving like this she'll be sending out wedding invitations before we even make it back to school." 

"As if he wouldn't be sending out the owls right alongside her," Remus muttered to Lily under his breath sending her into another fit of giggles. 

James turned at the sound of Remus and Lily giggling and nudged Peter to move forward to join them by the fire. 

"And what do you two find so funny?" James asked as he plopped himself down on a log opposite of his friends. Peter clumsily sat himself down beside James, spilling some all down his front. 

"Remus here was just telling me how you've been itching for Marlene and Black to get together," Lily replied. "We suspect you'll be playing cupid to keep them together." 

James narrowed his eyes, but there was humor behind his facade. 

"I now understand the phrase 'be careful what you wish for,'" he jested. "Honestly, look at those two."

The four heads snapped to the passionate pair by the table. Marlene now had her legs wrapped around Sirius' waist as he supported some of her weight against a nearby tree. 

"You think they're going to shag right here out in the open," Peter squeaked. The question made James groan in disgust.

"Merlin's beard, Wormtail," James said in disgust. "The sight of them snogging is bad enough. Now I have the frightening image of them shagging in my head." 

Lily sized up Marlene and Sirius. They were both experienced in the shagging department and weren't exactly shy about making their conquests known, but they usually kept their hookups to people of other houses to whom they had few attachments. Neither had ever hooked up with someone they considered a friend. 

"If they do shag," Lily chimed in. "I suspect they'll have enough common sense not to do it in front of the rest of us." 

James raised his eyebrows, he never expected to be discussing the topic of sex with Lily Evans so casually. While he had no evidence to back up this thought, he always thought of Lily to be very innocent and well, for lack of a better word, a prude. The more he thought about it, and he wasn't sure why he thought this - Marlene was her best friend, so they could surely talk about some of Marlene's 'romantic' partners. 

"You think Sirius has some common sense when it comes to this matter, Evans?" He asked. Lily considers the question before quickly answering.

"Marlene has the common sense not to do it in front of you lot." 

The three boys laughed in agreement with Lily, who glanced back over to Marlene and Sirius. 

"If you're anxious about your parents finding them in this state, I know just the trick that will break them apart," Lily told James, who gave her a skeptical look. 

"You're full of it, Evans. Nothing is going to break those two apart at this moment," James told her defiantly. 

Lily cocked her eyebrow at the messy-haired boy. "Oh, really? Willing to bet a few galleons on that statement?" 

"You're on," James said, sticking out his hand to solidify the deal. Lily shook it confidently before turning her head. 

"Hey Marlene," Lily yelled in a would-be casual tone. Marlene made no indication that she heard Lily call her name, but Lily pressed on. "Potter here was just telling us how he thinks that the Holyhead Harpies are absolute rubbish." 

Suddenly, Marlene pushed Sirius off her and whipped her head around to see where James had moved. 

"Oi Marls," Sirius began to complain, but she simply held a hand to silence him before stomping over to James to tell him off. 

"What is the blasphemy that you're speaking of, James?" She asked in a heated tone as James gaped at her. He looked at Lily in shock only to see that she was sporting a triumphant smirk. 

She mouthed the words' pay up' to James before turning her attention to Remus and Peter. 

"Do you boys fancy asking Sirius to play another round of the game while Marlene and James have their chat?" 

Peter muttered, "I'm not going to pair with Sirius if he's going to snog me after a win." 

"OH, YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY, WORMTAIL!" Sirius bellowed as the three teens made their way back over to the table. 

James absentmindedly listened to Marlene list all of the reasons why the Holyhead Harpies were the ultimate quidditch team as his three best friends jest with Lily. He watched as she tossed a small ball across the table, which missed the cups by about a foot, and she blushed furiously at her lack of 'athleticism' and Sirius barked with laughter. Remus and Peter moved to help coach Lily on the best way to land the cup. She listened to the boys patiently, but something behind her eyes said that their efforts were futile. Lily took another try at tossing the ball, and this time it fell short by a few inches, making her and the boys slump over in a fit of laughter. 

James didn't think that it could be possible, but he was falling more in love with Lily Evans.


	9. Oh Death

Dorcas groggily made her way through the entrance of the Ministry of Magic. Her early morning training sessions with Moody helped her overall Auror skills, but she was still failing to produce a proper Patronus to send covert messages. She could sense Moody's frustrations with this shortcoming during their sessions, but she would rather him be annoyed than have his pity that she couldn't form a corporeal Patronus at this stage in her life and career. As she reached the Auror department, Dorcas spotted Moody at his desk drinking a cup of coffee and reading the Daily Prophet. 

"Morning," Dorcas called softly. Moody grunted in response. Dorcas knew that this was the warmest greeting that she would ever get from her mentor as he was not much for small talk or the usual social niceties. "Anything suspicious in there?" 

"Bit of a quiet day so far, but that doesn't mean that this Voldemort bloke and his cronies aren't out there plotting away." 

Dorcas hummed in agreement, "Quite right, but how are our early morning sessions preventing them from causing more trouble?" 

Moody glared at her, "They aren't, but McKinnon is getting some resistance from Mitchum's office about assembling a special task force. Apparently, he has some junior aide in his office that's a bit wary of the source of our intel." 

"'The source of our intel'?" Dorcas asked in a deadpan voice. "You mean this aide has an issue specifically with me?"

The second question was more of a statement than anything else. 

"Yeah, apparently you gained quite the reputation during your Hogwarts days of running with a rough crowd," Moody grumbled. Dorcas left out a sigh of frustration. If this person knew her from Hogwarts, she could hardly blame them for having a low opinion of her. In fact, many of her old school mates were among those who were following this Lord Voldemort fellow. Most of them had a wide reputation of being bullies during those years, and no one had a worse reputation than her brother. 

"Well, who is this junior aide?" She asked. "Maybe I can get it sorted out that I've done a bit of growing up since my time at Hogwarts." 

"Her name's Emmeline Vance," Moody informed her. Dorcas let out a groan of defeat. "Ah, so you remember her." 

"Yeah, we absolutely loathed each other," Dorcas supplied. "We were in constant competition at school, and it didn't help matters that she was constantly trying to turn us in-" 

"Meadows," Moody cut in with an annoyed tone. "As much as I would love to take a stroll down memory road about the squabbles between a couple of schoolgirls, I would prefer to know how you're going to convince this lass to let go of her grudge and convince her boss to approve our task force." 

It was now Dorcas's turn to glare, "If you want me to grovel to Emmeline Vance then you have truly lost your mind." 

"I expect you to kiss this girl's arse because if you don't, this Voldemort bloke is only going to gain more power and followers if we don't have a system in place to stop him," Moody growled back angrily. 

Dorcas deflated a bit, knowing her superior was correct. Just as she was about to concede and say she would meet with Emmeline straight away, Ewan and Connell McKinnon came rushing into the department. Moody swiveled around in his chair to look at both of them. 

"What the bloody hell are you two doing here so early?" He inquired. 

"Received an owl from Mitchum that he received a message of the Muggle Prime Minister that there's been a strange murder of a prominent family," Ewan replied darkly. "He wants us to take a look to see if it was the work of a witch or wizard." 

"Will you two need a hand on the investigation?" Moody inquired. 

"Yeah, it'll be bloody madness trying to get anyone else here at this hour," Ewan agreed. Connell eyed Dorcas suspiciously, who stared back at him resolutely. She was starting to realize why Moody inferred had a reputation if it was only Emmeline Vance's opinion he was working off of. Apparently, more people had an issue with her position in the Auror's office. 

"You can trust Meadows, boy," Moody growled at Connell. 

"If you say so," the young wizard replied reluctantly, and his father turned to give him a disapproving look. 

"It's very hard to gain the trust of Alastor Moody, Connell," Ewan admonished. "If he says we can trust her, you best believe that he is right." 

Connell's face fell a bit, but Dorcas could not help but feel triumphant at the vote of confidence from her two superiors. 

"Right, best be on with it," Ewan said quickly. "Let's transfigure our robes into Muggle clothing and be on our way. The muggles lived in London not too far from here, so we'll be able to walk there. It will look a bit less conspicuous than appearing out of thin air." 

With a wave of their wands, the Aurors' robes had transformed into sensible suits that would allow them to blend in with the Muggle world they were about to enter. Moody and Ewan led the way out of the department, and the younger two trailed behind them. 

"Nice pantsuit," Connell muttered to Dorcas under his breath sarcastically. Dorcas gave him a cool, unimpressed look. 

"Careful," she replied. "Don't want Daddy to give you another tongue lashing now, do we?" 

Connell stared ahead, looking furious that Dorcas had one-upped him on the insult. They followed Moody and McKinnon through the streets of London before they saw a large crowd of police, reporters, and passersby gathered outside of an expensive-looking townhome. Many people were muttering about the scene, trying to get intel about what might have unfolded within the house. Ewan made his way over to a police officer, who pointed him to the detective in charge. After a moment of heated discussion, the detective instructed his officers to leave the house. Ewan beckoned the small team of Aurors to follow him inside of the home to begin their investigation. 

Upon entering, Dorcas thought this looked like a typical muggle home, although she suspected this family had more money than your run of the mill muggle. The house was ornately decorated as if a professional had laid a hand in designing each piece of art and furniture, photos of a stately looking couple and a teenage girl stood motionless on the walls, and everything was impeccably clean. Suspiciously clean for an apparent crime scene, Dorcas thought to herself. As the group moved further into the house, they found the family in the living room. The television was still turned on as a morning chat show was beginning its broadcast. 

The first one they saw was the father, who was crumpled on the floor near the entrance of the room with his unseeing eyes pointed at the ceiling. It appeared that he had tried to block his family from an unexpected intruder. The mother was strewn across an armchair, seemingly never seeing the attack coming. The last one they found was a girl who couldn't be older than 16. She laid face down in the doorway between the living room and kitchen. It looked as if she tried to make a run for it but wasn't quick enough to escape the assault on her family. 

"My guess would be the Killing Curse," Moody grumbled as he knelt beside the father to inspect his father even further. Ewan nodded in agreement but looked as if he were still considering various scenarios. 

"Yes, it doesn't look as if they died from any apparent injuries, and it's unlikely that they all suddenly died from a genetic illness at the exact same moment," the Head Auror muttered. "But why would a wizard just want to murder a prominent muggle family for no reason? Why draw attention?" 

"I think the attention is exactly what they wanted," Moody growled. "Create a grand old spectacle in the wizard and muggle world to get everyone buzzing about a nice, affluent family seemingly dropped dead on their own accord." 

"But why this family?" Dorcas asked as the men gave her a bewildered look. "If they wanted to get the Muggles' attention as well, why not aim higher and kill their Prime Minister? Or even the Queen, for that matter?" 

"Maybe because they aren't as mad as to go to war with the Muggle world," Connell sniped quickly. "If the Muggles think we're picking them off, it would send us back to the 14th century." 

Dorcas considered this for a moment realizing Connell was correct in his argument. 

"You're right," she responded, making the young wizard raise his eyebrows in surprise. "But that still doesn't answer why this family. It can't be random, and sure they're well known, but not too much so that it would cause major consequences for the wizarding world." 

Ewan nodded his head, "Let's keep digging. Try searching the room for any signs that these Muggles have a tie to the wizard community. Moody and I will cover the downstairs. You two check the bedrooms." 

Dorcas and Connell nodded and made their way up the grand staircase near the entrance of the house. As they reached the top of the stairs, Connell made his way into the master bedroom, and Dorcas walked down the hallway to enter a second room that clearly was the daughter's bedroom. The room was a light blue color as various posters of the Arsenal football club and British rock bands and photos of the young girl laughing with her friends littered the walls. Dorcas smiled sadly had she closely examined a metal that the girl had won for winning a football match. This girl had a whole life ahead of her, but it was stolen by hateful wizards who thought her life had no value simply because she held no magical abilities. 

Glancing around the room, Dorcas focused her attention on the closet in the corner. She couldn't explain why, but she felt that something in there was worth examining. As Dorcas opened the closet door, she was disappointed to see it was merely messily stuffed with clothing. As she took a step further to pilfer through the items, she felt a floorboard creak under her foot. Jackpot, she thought to herself. Dorcas crouched down to lift the floorboard and found a box hidden underneath it. When she saw what was inside of the box, she let out a small gasp.

The box was filled with photographs of another girl who looked very similar to the Muggle teenager, but with one significant difference to the photos that lined the bedroom wall. These photographs were moving. The pictures seemed a bit aged, but they were unmistakably magical. In some of the photos, the girl in the pictures sported Muggle clothing as she laughed with a gaggle of friends in what looked like Hogsmeade village, in another, she wore golden quidditch robes which indicated she belonged to Hufflepuff House at Hogwarts, and in another she looked adoringly at a boy teenage boy who stared back at her eyes full of love. Underneath the pile of photos were pages of letters from the Hogwarts girl seemingly addressed to the Muggle girl downstairs. 

"Guys," Dorcas called, "I think I've found something." 

She heard the shuffle of footsteps coming up the stairs, and Connell entered the room first. 

"What'd you find?" He asked hastily. Dorcas handed him a handful of the photos without saying a word. "Blimey, the girl was a witch?" 

Dorcas shook her head, "No, but I think she had a sister that was and who the family wanted to keep a secret." 

Connell handed the photos to Moody and Ewan as they entered the room, who examined them closely. 

"Looks like the witch here would be closer to your ages," Moody stated plainly. "Do either of you recognize her from Hogwarts?" 

Dorcas shook her head before responding, "No, but the name signed on the letters says her name is Abigail." 

"The muggle police downstairs said the family name is Langford," Ewan supplied. "I'm sure we could find a file on her back at the Ministry or even contact Dumbledore to see if he remembers the girl from her school days." 

"So we know why this lot was targeted. They have a muggle-born witch in the family," Moody said darkly. "Ewan, you know that it can't be a coincidence. Not with the Wagner lad still missing." 

"I know, Alastor," Ewan said tiredly. "I'll put some more pressure on Mitchum for the task force. Maybe I can get some support from Millicent Bagnold while I'm at it. She has his ear and seems to be willing to listen to our case." 

Moody gave a curt nod, "Well, that settles that matter. What do you think we should tell the Muggles about the cause of death?" 

"Gas leak?" Ewan offered weakly. "That can be the official cause of death, but Mitchum can let the Prime Minister know that it was one of our lot that did this poor family in." 

Ewan moved closer to one of the photos of the young girl on the wall, and a strange look of sadness came over him, "Merlin, this poor girl was the same age as Marlene." 

"Dad…" Connell started awkwardly, not quite knowing what to say to his father. 

"Don't - I'm just being silly," Ewan told his son in a consoling voice. "It's just always hardest when you see a kid is a victim, is all." 

"Not silly at all, Ewan," Moody said supportively. "We'll get the bastards that did this."

Ewan nodded appreciatively, "You suppose this Abigail girl has a room of her own?" 

"Only one way to find out," Moody replied cryptically as he set off down the hallway again. He opened each door as he went finding closets, a bathroom, a guest bedroom, and finally, when he reached the final door in the hallway, he found that the door was locked. "Seems to be the ticket." 

Moody pulled out his wand, pointed it at the doorknob, and muttered, "Alohomora." 

"Bloody hell," Connell gasped as the wizards stepped into the room. It was clear the bedroom belonged to a magical person as the posters and pictures on the wall were moving, just as the photos in the muggle girls box had been. However, the walls and photos had been graffitied with an ominous, glowing skull figure with a snake etching out of its mouth. 

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" He asked Moody and Ewan, who were closely examining the skull figures and shook their heads. 

"I have," Dorcas stated grimly. The three wizards turned abruptly to stare at her. "My brother has a tattoo of this figure on his forearm."


	10. What's Up?

After the festivities of the evening before, Marlene woke up slowly and groggily. Her head was pounding, a sure sign of a hangover and her mouth tasted like stale cigarettes and firewhiskey. With a groan, she opened her eyes and blinked to adjust to the light. As she rolled over, she found Lily sitting across from her on her bed sipping a cup of tea and smirking at her. 

"Good morning," Lily said in a sing-song voice, which Marlene returned with another groan and placing a pillow over her face to block out the light and shame of her action from the night before. "So you've made out with Sirius, you joined a very...fine league of girls there." 

Marlene groaned loudly into the pillow again, and Lily suppressed her laughter.

"At least it only happened in front of his mates and me," Lily said as if this would help matters. "I don't think Black would tell anyone else besides those three, but I suspect we will have to tell Mary." 

Marlene lifted the pillow to glare at Lily, who raised her eyebrows innocently. 

"Well, why don't we just send out some owls to announce it to everyone while we're at it," Marlene snapped sarcastically. "Maybe we can put an announcement in the Prophet. I'm sure Black's mother will be pleased to learn that he's managed to snog a pureblooded lass this time around." 

Lily snorted, "I think he might want to keep his mother out of any and all matters of his life." 

Marlene sighed and ran a hand through her golden blonde hair. How could she have let this happen? Of course, there was no denying that Sirius Black was attractive, but he had gained quite the reputation around school as being a man whore. After courting girls for a few weeks, Sirius would seemingly lose interest in them as soon as he snogged or shagged them. He also hardly ever provided girls with a reason for why he had lost interest in them. This had left a trail of wailing girls in Sirius' wake, which has driven Marlene mad. However, she would be a bit of a hypocrite if she judged him too harshly for his behavior. Marlene was no stranger to her own conquests around the school, she on the other hand, thought she at least had the decency to let her suitors down gently.

His lothario ways were just one of the many things that drove Marlene mad about Sirius Black. When James first took a liking to the boy in their first year, she could tell that he had an arrogance about him. Back then, it had to do with the fact that he was the male heir to the 'most ancient and noble House of Black'. However, as soon as Sirius became disillusioned with his family's values, his arrogance shifted from family pride to arrogance about his looks, intelligence, and natural ability on the Quidditch pitch. The next quality that annoyed Marlene was Sirius' quick temper. For the life of him, Sirius Black did not know how to pick his battles wisely. He was always ready to duel or throw a punch at the slightest insult to him or one of his friends. The Slytherins had quickly caught onto this weakness and tried to rile Sirius up at any chance they had. Sirius would often rise to the occasion, and nearly every time he did, he would wind up in detention. The last thing that drove Marlene absolutely insane was how reckless he could be. Sirius was never one for self-preservation, and Sirius always took extraordinary risks that would wind up injuries or a new enemy. For the life of her, Marlene still didn't know how Sirius wound up bound to his bed for an entire day last term, and despite all of her digging, she couldn't get any of the Marauders to reveal what he had done to get such an injury. Leading her to believe whatever he did was so idiotic that the Marauders feared Marlene would kill Sirius for being such a git. 

Despite all of these things that drove Marlene mad, she quite loved these qualities about him as well. As she had come to learn, Sirius would do almost anything to protect his friends and anyone he deemed an underdog. Last year, when Mulciber put a particular nasty hex on Mary McDonald, Sirius almost immediately got retribution on the Slytherin by giving him a concussion with a bludger. Of the four Marauders, Peter was arguably the weakest link, and in their early days at school, people had tried to make a target out of the plumb boy. Sirius had taken it upon himself to teach Peter a handful of protective charms and counter curses to protect himself if he or James weren't around to help. 

He was also always willing to take the fall for anyone if they got caught pulling a prank or being out of bounds past curfew. When Marlene was sneaking back to Gryffindor Tower after a rendezvous with Sturgis Podmore she ran smack into Sirius, who was returning from his own engagement with a sixth-year Ravenclaw girl. As the two were interrogating each other about their whereabouts that evening, they failed to see Mrs. Norris scurry off to fetch Mr. Filch. When they heard the Hogwarts caretaker huffing and puffing up the stairs to catch students out of bed, Sirius thrust Marlene under James' invisibility cloak with a hushed promise to create a distraction as she escaped back to the dormitories. True to his word, Sirius led Filch on a wild goose chase throughout the castle, the led to thirty points being deducted from Gryffindor and a month's worth of detentions for Sirius. Marlene has begged him to let her make it up to him somehow, but Sirius had refused outright, claiming that it had been totally worth it to be on the receiving end of one of Filch's meltdowns and getting a good swipe at Mrs. Norris. 

These were the moments where Marlene understood why James regarded Sirius as a brother rather than a friend. As Lily correctly pointed out once, Marlene and Sirius were so similar that they could clash heads, but they both knew the other would do anything for each other at the end of the day. Yet, Marlene never thought she would be among the many girls to kiss Sirius Black in a drunken stupor. At the moment, it seemed like an excellent idea. Marlene chalked in up to the late summer air and the fact that she had never seen Sirius look so carefree and happy while playing games with their friends. Combined with the lethal mix of alcohol and Marlene's love of winning, she was overcome with a strong urge to kiss Sirius, which he happily returned. Marlene wasn't daft enough to think that their drunken makeout really meant anything, and she was praying that if she just ignored the situation that Sirius would follow suit. 

"Well," Marlene said dryly, "I guess it's best just to rip off the bandaid and let the lads have a go at me." 

"That's the spirit," Lily cheered, and she raised her cup.   
After washing up for the morning, the two girls went downstairs to join everyone out for breakfast. Instead, they found the four boys quietly sitting outside of the kitchen door, eavesdropping on the conversation going on in the kitchen. 

"What's going on?" Lily asked. The boys all jumped in surprise at the sound of her voice and James hardly shushed her so that they didn't draw attention from the adults. 

"Marlene's mum is in there," Remus whispered to the girls. Marlene's brow creased with confusion. "Apparently, your dad and brother were called into the Ministry on an urgent matter this morning. A muggle family has been murdered in London." 

"Why would they call in Aurors for a muggle crime?" Marlene asked blankly. 

The boys all shrugged in response, but Sirius' eyes flashed to Lily for a brief moment before he glanced away again. Lily had a sinking feeling in the bottom of her stomach. Her thoughts flew to the images of Edwin Wagner, a muggle-born wizard who had gone missing over a year ago. If Aurors were being called in to investigate a muggle murder scene, it could only mean that a witch or wizard was somehow involved. It seemed as if each year there was an increase of attacks against muggle-born witches and wizards. Now the attacks were moving into the part of Lily's world that she thought still held some normalcy. 

Marlene fixed her stare on the door before marching through it to demand some answers from her mother. She could hear James groaning in annoyance at her hot-headed decision. 

"Oh, c'mon, Marlene!" 

As soon as Marlene walked into the kitchen, Euphemia, Siobhan, and Fleamont snapped their head towards the teen. Siobhan gave her daughter an exasperated look. 

"How much have you heard, Marlene?" She asked. 

"Actually, not much," Marlene replied honestly. "But you have quite the audience building up outside of the kitchen." 

"What?" Euphemia asked incredulously before rushing to the kitchen door and opening it. The boys were pretending to look busy as Lily looked a bit clueless. "Nice try, you lot, but you aren't fooling anyone." 

The boys at least had the decency to look a bit ashamed for eavesdropping, and Euphemia's face softened a bit.

"Well, best you hear it from us rather than the rumor mill," she said reluctantly. "Come, sit down. Tilly will fix us some breakfast." 

Upon hearing her name, the house-elf popped into the kitchen and began cooking for everyone. The teenagers each found a spot around the kitchen table to listen to the information that Siobhan had to share. Siobhan looked at all of them with an unreadable expression before turning back to Euphemia. 

"Effie, I'm not sure about this... they're still just kids."

Marlene and Sirius opened their mouths to protest but Euphemia gave them a pointed look that told the two of them to keep quiet. 

"Shiv, I know how you feel, but they also aren't going to be children for much longer," Euphemia said evenly. "Now, I don't want them signing up for any war quite yet, but I do think that they must be informed about what is going on right now." 

Siobhan let out a sigh of defeat, "Alright, but keep in mind I don't know much. All I know is what Ewan's hunch is, and let's be honest, his hunches often turn out to be right. The Minister of Magic got a call this morning after reports of a muggle family appeared to have just dropped dead of their own accord. Seeing as that scenario was highly unlikely your father was called in to investigate." 

Everyone absorbed this information for a moment before Lily spoke up. 

"But there was no actual proof that this was the work of a dark witch or wizard?" 

"Well, no proof if you're a muggle," Siobhan supplied. "However, Connell and Ewan shared that they have a new witch in the department who has connections to some shady people within the Sacred 28 blood purists that seemed to have joined some secret organization. Among the few people in the Auror Department that know about it, they believe this so-called organization is directly tied to the disappearance of Edwin Wagner." 

"The Cause," Sirius pitched in. Everyone's head turned toward him with looks of confusion. "The night my mother kicked me out, my aunt and uncle brought our cousins over with their...betrothed. It seemed like a perfectly normal family dinner, well normal for my family, that is. Still, it came evident that my cousin Bella, her husband, and Lucius Malfoy are all part of some society that they referred to as The Cause. They were hoping to get a generous donation from my parents, but they didn't seem too thrilled at the casual shakedown." 

"Did they say what this cause was?" Fleamont implored. 

Sirius shook his head, "They didn't get into specifics, but with my family, I'm sure it has everything to do with the preservation of blood purity." 

  
Lily felt her chest constrict. So muggle-borns and muggles were being targeted by dark wizards. This means she could be next or even her family. What would Petunia say if she knew that Lily was making their family vulnerable? She would probably feel vindicated that her hatred of all things magical and her fear of the 'freaks' was perfectly valid. In her peripheral vision, she could see James casting her a weary look that she pointedly tried to ignore. 

"And dad thinks that this recent attack is connected to Wagner's disappearance?" Marlene inquired. Her mother nodded slowly in response. 

"Yes, but he couldn't be sure until he got on the scene," Shiv continued. "He promised to send an owl as soon as he learned more, so we might not receive word from him for a few more hours." 

The group sat in tense silence for a few moments. Something big was coming, but it was too hard to predict when the enemy wasn't showing their face yet. While a majority of the people in the room would be safe from the ongoing attacks due to the purity of their blood, they couldn't help but think about the redheaded girl sitting at the table, who was sure to be a target. In their minds, it could only take someone truly heinous to want to harm the charming, kindhearted girl in front of them because they deemed their blood was purer than her's. Then their thoughts moved to what would happen once they removed all of the muggle-borns. Would they target half-bloods next? What about half-breeds? To what end would these people go to in order to achieve blood purity. 

They were quickly pulled from their thoughts as Tilly placed breakfast on the table and began taking drink requests from each person. 

"Well, dig in, everyone," Euphemia piped up, trying to lighten the mood. "You'll need your energy for Diagon Alley today." 

After a quiet breakfast, Marlene was the first to finish her meal and she quickly scurried out of the kitchen to get ready for their day and, most importantly, avoid Sirius. She found this effort futile because as soon as she dove into her trunk to pull out her clothing, she heard the door close behind her only to find Sirius standing there. 

Marlene narrowed her eyes at him as Sirius held up his hands as a sign of peace. 

"Don't freak out," he requested. "I just came to chat about last night." 

Without thinking, Marlene chucked a pillow at him. 

"Oi!' He complained, but Marlene picked up the pillow and continued smacking him with it. 

"You and my mother just told us that there is a secret organization out there targeting muggle-borns and muggle, and you want to talk about snogging?!" 

"I just - HEY!" Sirius whisper-yelled as he ripped the pillow from Marlene's hands. She blew a piece of hair that had fallen in front of her face out of her way so she could glare at her friend. Sirius' grey eyes glared right back at her. After a moment, Sirius finally relented. 

"I just wanted to know if this is going to be a thing?" 

"A thing?" Marlene snarled back. 

"Yeah. You and me snogging, that is," Sirius explained. "Is it going to cause issues? You haven't been secretly in love with me for all these years, have you?" 

Marlene tossed her head back and let out a bitter laugh. 

"Oh, you wish, Black," she snapped. "Trust me, it was just a mix of firewhiskey and victory that led me to kiss you. Nothing beyond that, it will never happen again." 

To her surprise, Sirius looked almost disappointed. 

"Never?" He asked, curious if she meant what she said. Marlene would lie, Sirius was an excellent kisser, and she wouldn't mind kissing him again. But she couldn't imagine that the two of them carrying on like this would result in a happy ending of any sort. 

She squared her shoulders before responding with a curt nod, but her eyes involuntarily glanced down at Sirius' lips for a fraction of a second. Sirius smirked, sensing her hesitation and expecting that they would, in fact be kissing again. 

"Well," he said with a crooked smile, which oddly spurned some flutters in Marlene's stomach. "If you change your mind, you know where to find me." 

Marlene glared at him again before replying, "Don't hold your breath." 

Sirius let out a bark of laughter before turning out of the room and passing by a very confused Lily. 

"Evans," he greeted her cordially as he continued to stride down the hall. Lily watched him as he went and turned back to Marlene with an expectant look to fill her in on what transpired in the room. 

"We were just sorting out what happened last night," Marlene explained. "I made it perfectly clear that it was a one time only event." 

Lily raised her eyebrows at her friend but didn't say anything. However, Marlene knew her best friend well enough to know she was holding back what she was really thinking. 

"What?" Marlene asked desperately. 

"Well," Lily said hesitantly. "I don't know Black all that well, but from what I do know, it's that if you tell him he can't do something, it will be the only thing in the world that he wants." 

Marlene stared at Lily before picking up the pillow once more and groaning into it. 


	11. Don't Panic

Down in London, the small group of Aurors made their way to the Minister's office to relay their findings from the Langford murders. Apparently, the word had spread through the Ministry that Aurors have been dispatched to a muggle crime scene and they had to dodge a few reporters from The Daily Prophet, who were clamoring for answers about what they had seen. Ewan sternly told them that the Aurors do not discuss ongoing investigations as he was pushed by them determinedly and guided his team to the elevator to lead them to their destination. 

When they reached the Minister's office's landing, a young woman with cropped dark hair and dark blue robes came bustling up to them. 

"Head Auror McKinnon?" She asked. Ewan nodded his head in response, and the witch held out her hand to introduce herself. "Emmeline Vance, junior aide to the Minister of Magic. We've been expecting your arrival." 

At the mention of Emmeline's name, Moody and Dorcas shared a significant look with one another but remained silent. 

"Is this the rest of your team?" Emmeline asked in a professional tone looking around the group. When her eyes fell on Dorcas, and her jaw dropped a bit, not expecting to see her old nemesis from her school days. 

"Yes," Ewan replied gruffly. "This is Alastor Moody, my son Connell, and one of our newest additions to the Auror Department, Dorcas Meadows." 

Dorcas attempted to give Emmeline a friendly smile, but she suspected it appeared to come off as more of a grimace. 

"Right," Emmeline said after a moment of hesitation. "Well, if you would all follow me, I'll take you straight to the Minister." 

Turning on her heel, Emmeline led the group down a long hallway. A few secretaries craned their necks to get a good look at the Aurors as if the sight of them would give them any indication of what had transpired in the muggle household that morning. When they reached the end of the hall, Emmeline knocked on a tall pair of brass doors. 

"Come in," a squeaky voice called from within. Within the office, Harold Mitchum sat in a high backed chair. He was a relatively tiny man, who was balding but with a few remaining wisps of white hair. Mitchum looked as if he would be a rather amiable grandfather instead of the man who held the highest office in the wizarding world. Mitchum started at the Ministry nearly forty years ago in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and worked his way to the Minister of Magic by befriending the higher-ups in almost every other Department. He was a very level-headed and fair Minister, but when it came to matters such as law enforcement, Mitchum relied heavily on the guidance of Millicent Bagnold and Ewan McKinnon on the best ways to deal with dark wizards. 

In Mitchum's early days as Minister, he did not have much to fret about in regards to dark wizards. Yet over the years, he could not ignore the odd disappearances and whispers of prominent families pledging their allegiance to blood purity causes that would ostracize muggle-born witches and wizards. When the Prime Minister reached out to him in the early hours that morning, Mitchum was floored that the odd occurrences were spilling over to the muggle world as well. He had seen some sinister wizards over the years, but none that were so brazen to attract the attention of muggles. Mitchum had instead been hoping that it was just an odd accident that killed the muggle family, but the look on the Aurors' faces told him that he should be expecting the worst. 

"Ewan," Mitchum greeted hesitantly as if to brace himself for the news. 

"Minister," Ewan replied respectfully. Mitchum gave him an expectant look which made Ewan sigh. "It was as we feared, Harold. This was the work of dark wizards." 

Mitchum swore under his breath and hung his head. This was going to make quite the mess with the public, there would be mass panic in both the wizarding and muggle world if the news that dark wizards were targeting innocent families. 

"Are you sure?" 

Ewan nodded solemnly, "We suspect that used the killing curse as there were no signs of an evident struggle or any other injuries that could have caused their deaths. We did some digging to determine why the Langfords might have been targeted, it seemed a bit too calculated to be a random selection. When we checked the daughter's room, we found that they have a second daughter who seems to be a witch that they were keeping a secret." 

"Abigail Langford?" Emmeline asked, her voice brimming with shock and sadness. 

"Yes, do you know her?" Moody asked gruffly. 

Emmeline gave a nod, "She works here at the Ministry in the Department of Magical Transportation. A very nice young woman...Merlin, they got her entire family?" 

"So you think this family was targeted because they had a muggle-born witch in the family?" Mitchum asked. 

"Almost certainly," Ewan continued. "When we found Abigail's room, it was graffitied with this erm mark." 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of cloth. When the Minister unwrapped it, he found a medium-sized piece of wallpaper that had the moving skull figure with a snake slithering out of its mouth. 

"What the bloody hell is this?" He asked incredulously. 

"That there is their calling card, Minister," Moody explained. "As you know, McKinnon has told you about this underground organization of wizards that had made it their goal to eliminate muggles and muggle-born witches and wizards from the face of the world. Since we haven't done anything to stop them yet, so naturally, they are becoming bolder." 

"How can you be sure that this mark is related to the organization?" Emmeline inquired. Ewan, Connell, and Moody turned to Dorcas to permit her to fill in the Minister and his aide. 

"Because I've seen this mark before on my brother's arm," Dorcas informed them. "And I'm certain that he is part of this organization." 

Mitchum and Emmeline gaped at the young witch. 

"Well, why haven't you brought this lad in for questioning?" Mitchum demanded. "It's clear that he's in connection to this murder." 

Dorcas shook her head, "I don't think he was involved with these specific murders, Minister. As McKinnon said, there were no signs of injury or struggle on the body. This was a quick and clean job. And um...well, that is exactly my brother's style." 

She hung her head in shame, knowing that her colleagues would be disgusted by this revelation. They would be quite right to think that her brother was a monster, he often took pleasure in causing pain, and the slower experiments suffered, the better. Dorcas had tried to intervene with his experiments for years and urged her parents to get help for her younger brothers, but they just chalked it up to him being a curious boy. Over the years, Dorcas learned that it was best to keep her mouth shut and her head down to matters that didn't precisely concern her. In her younger years, she was only involved in keeping an eye out for herself - mostly to protect herself from any of Ezra's violent outbursts. Then when her classmates became more radicalized in the blood purity belief, she held her tongue, thinking that her arguments against them weren't worth losing friendships. 

However, it was her silence that cost her the dearest friendship she had. When Andromeda Black revealed to her that she was secretly seeing the muggle-born boy Ted Tonks of Hufflepuff House, she had been quite shocked. After all, the Black family was one of the biggest blood purists around. They wouldn't be thrilled at the prospect that one of their daughters thought of breaking a centuries long tradition of marrying into another pureblood family. At first, Dorcas was proud of her best friend for following her heart, but then Andromeda revealed her relationship to the world, and it was as if the sky had fallen. Andromeda had been disowned by her family and ostracized by the people she once considered friends. Worst of all. Dorcas' parents threatened to disown her if she continued to speak with Andromeda and Ted. In fear of losing her family and support system, Dorcas began to shun her best friend entirely and did not speak to her for five years. 

It wasn't until Dorcas had a massive falling out with her family last year that she fled to Andromeda and Ted's house in the middle of the night in a panic. Upon seeing Dorcas' grief-stricken face, Andromeda brought her into the house without a moment's hesitation, and they were able to mend the relationship that they once had slowly. To her knowledge, her family was keeping their falling out under wraps, and many within the pureblood community still counted Dorcas as a friend. Dorcas decided it might be in her best interest not to correct them as she never knew if she would have to rely on these relationships to keep her safe if danger came knocking. 

Then an idea struck her. 

"Or what if we do haul my brother in?" She suggested. Everyone in the room stared at her with confusion. "Hear me out. We haul Ezra in for questioning about the Langford murders. The evidence is paper-thin, so he'll obviously walk, but I can make a big grand spectacle of you hauling in my brother on bogus charges and take him home. If I can mend my relationship with my family, I might be able to get back in with the people who are a part of this secret organization and gather information from the inside." 

Moody gave her an impressed look and turned to Ewan with his eyebrows raised. 

"It could be good to have a spy on the inside," Moody supported. "Meadows, you don't think this lot would be suspicious of you trying to get back into their good graces?" 

Dorcas hesitated, "I'll have to play my card right, but many of them don't even know that I don't speak to my family anymore and still treat me pretty cordially. It could work, and if we have the right team, we might be able to take these people down before they cause any more damage." 

"And how do we know that you're not already playing spy for the pureblood maniacs?" Emmeline asked in a cold voice. 

Dorcas stared back at her, hoping to come up with a good argument that would make her believe that she was indeed working on their side. 

"You'll just have to take a leap of faith," Dorcas told her earnestly. Emmeline's shoulders slumped a bit, indicating her resolve against Dorcas was weakening a bit. 

Ewan placed both of his hands down on the Minister's desk and leaned towards Mitchum. 

"You need to let us try this, Harold," he told the older man pleadingly. "If we don't act now, these people are only going to get worse." 

Mitchum nodded in agreement, "Yes, alright. Get the team you need in place and keep it totally discreet. Make sure you pass any supplementary duties over to Scrimmegour. He would be happy to assist you with any day-to-day administrative items that might fall by the wayside during your investigation. In the meantime, I suppose we'll need to break the news to this Abigail lass." 

Ewan hung his head. He had almost forgotten about the surviving Langford girl. 

"I can break the news to her," he replied sadly. "Do you know what floor I can find her on?" 

"I'll bring her to this office. It might be best to give her a bit of privacy from her colleagues when she hears the news," Emmeline said as she swept out the door. 

Ewan glanced back at the other Aurors before telling them they should go back to the Auror Department to get started on forming their task force and writing their reports on the Langford case. As Connell and Dorcas shuffled out of the room, Moody walked over to whisper a question in his superior's ear. Ewan nodded, and Moody stalked out of the room behind the younger Aurors. 

"What was that about?" Dorcas asked her mentor, who simply gave her a scathing look. 

"You just mind your business," He retorted. "But if you must know, I need to head to Hogsmeade to see a man about a goat?" 

"A goat?" Dorcas sneered. 

"Meadows, if you're going undercover, you are going to need to learn how to pick up on codes fairly quickly," Moody spat. "You just get started on the reports, and we'll talk about the task force when I return." 

With that, Moody took off towards the elevators that would take him back to the Ministry's main entrance. As Moody stepped on to the elevator, Emmeline was already returning with Abigail Langford in tow. The young witch looked apprehensive as if she was dreading that she was about to be sacked by the Minister himself. Yet she somehow in for something far worse. 

Dorcas watched as Ewan McKinnon moved forward to greet Abigail. Although she could not hear was he was saying, Dorcas could tell that he wasted little time in explaining what had happened to Abigail's family, and a look of shock passed over the young woman's face. Abigail took a few steps back from Ewan, and she shook her head at him as if he must have called down the wrong Abigail Langford. Ewan gingerly grabbed her arm and muttered something else to her. Suddenly, Abigail let out a loud wail, and she collapsed to the ground. 

Dorcas turned away, wanting to give Abigail her privacy, and continued down the hallway to take the elevators back to the Auror Department. She had almost forgotten that Connell was with her before he heard him mutter bitterly behind her. 

"Fucking bastards," he cursed. Dorcas turned to him and held his gaze. 

"We're going to stop them," she said in a determined voice. "We're going to make sure of it." 

\-- 

With a loud crack, Alastor Moody appeared in the village of Hogsmeade. Since the school term had not yet started, it was unusually quiet in the village as Moody made his way toward the Hogs Head, which was off the main road's beaten path. Upon entering, he found the old barman lazily wiping the empty tabletops. The barman glanced at Moody, not at all surprised to see him in the pub. 

"Alastor," he greeted plainly. 

"Aberforth," Moody replied with a curt nod. "I'm supposed to be meeting your brother here this afternoon. Has he arrived yet?" 

Aberfoth jerked his head to the stairway behind him, "He's in the first room on the left." 

Moody nodded again and carried on up the stairs. In the room, he found Albus Dumbledore sitting by an open window in emerald green robes that were covered in golden stars. 

"Ah Alastor, how lovely to see you," the Hogwarts headmaster greeted warmly as Moody made his way across the room to settle himself in the chair opposite Dumbledore. "I fear that you do not come bearing good news." 

"Not quite," Moody grumbled darkly. "Turns out the muggle family had a witch daughter, which explains why they were targeted. Also, the people who carried out these murders are almost certainly connected to the people who took Edwin Wagner." 

Dumbledore sighed deeply that his fears were confirmed. 

"I presume that you have evidence that the two are connected?" He asked. 

Moody nodded him and handed him the same patch of wallpaper that they had presented to the Minister showing the calling card that the wizards had left in the Langford home. 

"That's not all," Moody continued. "Do you remember Dorcas Meadows from her time at school?" 

"Yes, a bright young girl and exceptionally talented at Defense Against the Dark Arts as well," Dumbledore elaborated. "Quite ironic given the company that she held and that her younger brother was quite fascinated with the Dark Arts himself." 

"Funny you should mention that because according to Dorcas Meadows, her brother has a tattoo of this exact mark on his forearm," Moody told the other wizard. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows in surprise. "According to Meadows, the Langford murders weren't quite his style, but he is certainly connected to the people who carried them out. Apparently, there is a secret organization of blood purists following a fellow that calls himself Lord Voldemort." 

Dumbledore lowered his head and whispered, "Oh, Tom." 

"You've heard of him?" Moody asked incredulously. 

"Indeed, I have," Dumbledore began. "Years ago, he was a student here at Hogwarts. Like Miss Meadows, he was exceptionally bright and talented, but he took a liking to the Dark Arts as her brother did. As a student, he was able to charm most of the staff to think that he was a shining example of what a good student should be, but I could sense the storm underneath him. After he left school, many were shocked that he did not take up a job at the Ministry, and he soon after disappeared from the British Wizarding community. A few years ago, he turned up in my office looking for a job which I denied him, and even then, he had a small group of followers who were waiting on standby in this very inn." 

"How can you be sure that this Tom fellow and Voldemort are the same person?" Moody inquired.

"Because when he had a group of sycophants in his school days, he implored them to use the name when talking to him," Dumbledore explained. "Back then, he was a bit more discreet about the name, but when I had reprimanded one of his friends for taking the fall for Tom after he attacked another student, they let the name slip." 

"What do you suspect he was doing for all of those years that he was gone?" Moody asked. 

Dumbledore hesitated, "I gather that he traveled to learn more about the Dark Arts than anyone else. I also think he has been making a quiet bid for power that had evidently worked in his favor thus far. And if he's not stopped soon, we may have a war on our hands." 

"That's what I came here to talk to you about," Moody said gruffly. "We got Mitchum to approve the task force to investigate this Voldemort bloke and his secret organization. We're also going to have Meadows go undercover as she has close connections with some of the people in this secret society of their but -" 

"But there are spies on the inside of the Ministry already," Dumbledore finished for him. Moody nodded again. "I've suspected this for quite some time, Alastor. That's why I think it might be prudent to begin a secret society of our own that is aimed towards stopping Lord Voldemort at any costs composed only of those wizards and witches we trust the most." 

"Couldn't have said it better myself," Moody stated. "So where do you suppose we find these fine folks?" 

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he took a sip from his goblet, knowing that they were on the verge of a great battle indeed. 


	12. The Dog Days Are Over

Not too far from the Ministry, Siobhan and Euphemia led the group of teens through Diagon Alley. They had just departed from Flourish and Blott's to pick up their school books for the new term. As James had another slight growth spurt over the summer, his mother was tugging him towards Madam Malkin's as the remaining Marauders announced that they would be going to Greenhawk's Botanical Blooms. When Marlene demanded to know why the boys were going to a herbology store, Sirius sharply told her to mind her business. Then he cheerfully promised their chaperones that they would meet them back at The Leaky Cauldron at three o'clock. 

Marlene gave Sirius a withering look as they departed while Lily simply waved them off, not thinking much of their departure. They had promised Mary that they would meet her at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and set off on their own as well. They spotted Mary talking cheerfully to another young woman with a pixie cut and a kind, round face as they walked up to the shop. Marlene and Lily quickly recognize Alice Fortescue, a year older than them at school and a fellow Gryffindor. Alice wore an apron around her middle, indicating that she was assisting with the shop's workload that her father owned. This was a common occurrence for the young witch as she often used the holiday breaks to stack up on galleons, sickles, and knuts to spend during their weekend trips to Hogsmeade. 

Mary then glanced away from Alice and noticed her two friends walking up. 

"There you two are!" She exclaimed while absolutely beaming at them. "I was afraid you two were about to stand me up." 

"We thought about it," Marlene said sarcastically. "You're lucky that Lily here is so sweet because she would hear nothing of my scheming ways to leave you hanging here and eating your weight in ice cream." 

Mary rolled her eyes at her friend, "Missed you too, McKinnon." 

Mary stood up quickly to hug both Lily and Marlene. Mary was a waifish young girl who had long, straight, light brown hair and matching warm brown eyes. She and Lily quickly took to one another in their first years as they both came from Muggle families and were sorted into Gryffindor House. While Lily had Severus around to teach her a few things about the wizarding world, Mary and her parents were completely blindsided when Minerva McGonagall turned up on their doorstep five years ago to inform them that Mary was, in fact, a witch. Lucky for both of them, Marlene was able to teach them the nuances of the wizarding world that Severus seemingly failed to warn Lily about before arriving at school. 

For example, in their second year at Hogwarts, when Hephaestus Mulciber had called Lily and Mary mudbloods for besting him during a Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, they had simply blinked at them in confusion, not knowing what the word meant. They didn't understand why Marlene had flown at the boy in a blur of fury and fists. It was all of James, Sirius, and Remus' efforts to peel her off of Mulciber, but when she told them what Mulciber had called her friends, they pulled out their wands to hex the Slytherin. However, Professor McGonagall had walked out at that very moment and diffused the situation. Noticing Marlene's bloody and bruised hands and the wands in the boys' hands, she swiftly gave them all detention and had taken ten points from each of them. 

It wasn't until they returned to Gryffindor Tower that Marlene and the boys explained to Lily and Mary that certain people in the wizarding world held prejudices against muggle-born wizards because they didn't have what they considered to be pure blood. At the time, Mary and Lily had found the notion a bit silly, but as they grew older, they learned first hand the warnings from their friends were entirely accurate. Most times, it was just the hushed whispers of Mudblood behind their backs. Other times, it would be a jinx that would tear their backpacks or make them trip over their own feet in the hallways. But the worst thing to happen happened last term. Mary had been returning to the Gryffindor common room after a long night of studying on her own in the library in preparation for the O.W.L.s. She had been stopped suddenly by Mulciber, Avery, and Dolohov, some of the most sinister students in Slytherin house. Mary had tried to simply pass by them when Mulciber hit Mary with a hex that she did not recognize but left her bleeding profusely. 

In a panic, the Slytherin boys had made a mad dash for it. As fate would have it James, Sirius, and Peter had been returning from a secret meeting and found Mary in the nick of time. James had lifted Mary up to carry her up to take her to the hospital wing as Sirius sprinted to get Professor McGonagall and Peter ran ahead of James to give Madam Pomfrey the heads up on the situation. Despite Mary remaining resolute in who her attackers were, the entirety of the Slytherin provided Mulciber, Avery, and Dolohov with alibis so they would not be reprimanded. This offset a deep feud between the two houses. While the houses had a centuries-long competition with one another, the attack on Mary McDonald was viewed as a new low for the Slytherins. Even most of the students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw turned their backs towards the Slytherins as Mary was well-liked by most people she came across. 

In vain, Lily tried to get Severus to see how foul his so-called friends were. Mary was one of Lily's only friends in Gryffindor that were willing to be kind to Severus for Lily's sake. While she was also confused to see what her friend saw in the moody boy, Mary respected that he was an important person in Lily's life, and if she wanted to keep him as a friend, she would make an effort to treat Snape with respect. However, after Snape joined the rest of the Slytherins in the cover-up of her attack, she had grown colder towards him. Then, Severus showed Lily his true colors when he called her mudblood in front of everyone, confirming her fears that her so-called best friend would sell her out to save his own ego and pride. Lily had cried for weeks over the way their friendship so quickly imploded, Marlene firmly told her that she was better off with Snape hanging onto her, but Mary was very sympathetic and listened to Lily patiently. 

"Can I get you two anything to eat?" Alice asked in a friendly tone. Marlene ordered a fudge sundae, while Lily ordered a strawberry ice cream in a waffle cone as they sat down to ask Mary all about her summer holiday. Mary had spent her holiday visiting her grandparents on the coast and regaled her friends with stories of a Muggle boy that she had a brief fling with during her vacation. Mary told them she thought it best to break things off with the boy as she did not know how she could adequately explain that the only way he would be able to communicate with her from September to June was by owl post. 

"Mary McDonald, you little minx," Marlene drawled slowly. "Snogging a lad for a whole summer and leaving him in the dust, I've taught you well." 

"Speaking of snogging and ditching," Lily chimed in. "Marlene drunkenly made out with Black last night." 

Mary dropped her spoon in shock as she gaped at Marlene. 

" _I knew it_ ," she hissed. "I always knew you two secretly fancied each other. Always bickering like an old married couple and fawning over James Potter as if you're each his bloody mother." 

"We do not _fancy_ each other," Marlene snarled indignantly. "We were smashed off of our faces and I got a bit too riled up after beating James and Peter at a bit beer pong and well -" 

"Throttled Black as if he were the last man on earth," Lily said cooly while continuing to lick her ice cream. Marlene glared at her, but Lily smiled back jubilantly as Mary laughed. 

"Well, how was it?" Mary asked curiously. She wouldn't deny that Sirius Black was the most handsome boy in their year, possibly the most beautiful boy in the whole school. He also had quite the reputation of the school, and while Mary didn't fancy herself as being one of the girls that fell prey to Sirius Black's wiles, she wanted to have the confirmation that he was as good as snogging as people said. 

Marlene blushed before answering the question, "As much as it annoys me, he was actually quite good." 

Lily and Mary laughed and squealed at Marlene's expense and continued to tease her until Alice walked back up to them and sat in the spare chair at their table. 

"I have a five-minute break, so quickly tell me what you three are carrying on about." She demanded. 

"Marlene and Sirius Black snogged last night," Mary informed the older girl. Alice raised her eyebrows and gave Marlene a rather impressed look. 

"Right, are we actually going to tell everyone about this?" Marlene asked with dread filling her voice. 

"Oh, hush up," Alice scolded her. "The only person I suspect I'll tell is Frank, and I wouldn't bet on him to go squealing all over the castle about it." 

Marlene continued to glower, but Alice was undeterred by this and continued the inquisition. 

"Right then, fess up, how was he? As good as everyone says?" 

"Better," Marlene replied bitterly, and the girls continued to laugh at her expense. "However, I already made it perfectly clear to him that it was a one-time-only fluke, and it would never happen again." 

Mary gave her an almost pitying look, and Alice snorted as she lifted a bottle of butter beer to her lips. 

"What?" Marlene demanded. 

"Well, if there's one thing Sirius Black loves doing more than anything else in this world, it's doing the opposite of what he's been told to do," Mary explained. 

"Meaning?" Marlene asked. 

"Meaning," Alice cut in this time. "That boy is going to chase you around Hogwarts until you've agreed to snog him again." 

Lily gave a hum of agreement, as this was exactly what she told Marlene this morning, but now she had other people to back up her statement. 

"I hate you all," Marlene grumbled as she continued to dig away at her sundae. Deciding to move the conversation away from Marlene and Sirius Black, Lily asked Alice about her summer holiday. Alice informed them that much of her time at been spent at her father's ice cream shop to save up money before the new school term. When she wasn't working, she would spend most of her free time with her boyfriend Frank Longbottom, who was also entering into his seventh year at Hogwarts. Frank and Alice had begun dating in the fourth year at school and had been pretty inseparable ever since. While Frank was the more quiet and polite one of the pair, Alice was loud and always quick with a joke with spitfire energy. Marlene often viewed the pixie-haired girl as the older sister she never had. 

"Almost forgot to mention it," Alice said, her eyes lighting up and reaching into her pocket to pull out a shiny silver badge. "Frank and I have been made Head Boy and Girl." 

The girls gasped in excitement for their friend. 

"Oh, excellent," Lily said happily. "You two deserve it!" 

Alice scoffed, "Well, Frank certainly deserves it. I think Dumbledore needed me to play the bad Auror to Frank's good Auror routine." 

"Well, at least you'll have the guts to stick up to those foul Slytherins, unlike the knobheads we were stuck with last year," Marlene said haughtily. 

"Too right," Mary said darkly. 

After the girls finished their ice cream, they paid Alice and offered her another round of congratulations, and shuffled back down the street to complete their shopping for the day. After stopping at Madam Malkins for new robes for Mary, they went to Quality Quidditch Goods for Marlene to get a new pair of fingerless gloves to use during her quidditch matches. As they were nearing the time of their curfew, the girls decided it was time to head back to the Leaky Cauldron to meet up with Siobhan, Euphemia, and the boys. The pub was nearly in sight until four bulky figures stepped in front of the girls, blocking their path. 

It was Mulciber, Macnair, Yaxley, and Avery four pureblooded wizards that belonged to Slytherin House that dedicated their life to tormenting any one of muggle-born status or anyone who dared to stand up to them. A malicious glint was in Mulcibers eyes as he looked at Mary, but rather than backing down, Mary stared at him defiantly, refusing to let him get underneath her skin. 

"Still slumming it with the mudbloods I see, McKinnon," Mulciber started scathingly. "I would suspect after all the nasty things that have been happening to the mudbloods and muggles over the summer. You would have had the common sense to find new friends." 

"Watch your tongue," Marlene snapped at him, itching to take out her wand to hex him. "Or are you too busy using your tongue to snog a cousin to keep your precious bloodlines intact?" 

Mulciber snarled at Marlene and took a menacing step towards her, but Malene refused to back down, leaving their faces inches apart. 

"Filthy little blood traitor," he spat. "If you were smart, you would do your best to get on the right side of the storm that is coming." 

"Right," Marlene said dryly. "If being on the 'right side' means I have to hang out with inbred mongrels such as yourself, I think I'm fine right where I'm at." 

A burst of familiar barklike laughter sounded behind the Slytherin boys making them turn on their heels. They found Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter staring at the scene with apprehension on their face. Mulciber squared his shoulders as if he were preparing for a fight. 

"Have something to say, Black?" He asked coldly. 

"Nah, I think McKinnon here has it covered," Sirius replied easily. "Though if you thought these three would be easy targets, you definitely haven't been on the receiving end of one of Evans' bat-bogey hexes." 

Mulciber ignored Sirius and decided to go in for the low blow. 

"I nearly forgot that you decided to go full blood traitor as well, Black," Mulciber sneered at him. "One would think that you're family disowning you would tell you that its only filth and the unwanted that would fight for mudblood scum like those two." 

Sirius swiftly took out his wand in effort to hex Mulciber, willing to forgo any of the consequences it brought on. However, James grabbed his friend by the forearm and twisted both Sirius's arms behind his back while Remus jumped between Sirius and Mulciber to stand guard in case Sirius broke free from James' grasp. Off to the side, Peter gave a few panicked squeaks but then noticing that the Slytherins were distracted, he beckoned the girls to rush over to him and the other Marauders so that they weren't split up. Marlene moved forward to assist James in holding Sirius back and she quietly urged the long-haired boy not to do anything stupid. 

Suddenly, a shopkeeper rushed out of his store to tell the teens that he would have any trouble going on here and told them all to be on their way. 

"See you at school," Mulciber said menacingly to the group as he and his cronies took off down the street, hooting and hollering at the scene. 

Sirius began to complain loudly to his friends that they should have just let him hex Mulciber as the trace would indeed be thrown off by the presence of so many wizards. The group decided to ignore him as they all knew letting Sirius attack Mucliber would be more trouble than it was worth. Lily cast an anxious glance back towards the Slytherin boys to make sure they weren't following them for another ambush. What she did see, however, was far worse. 

A fifth figure waited for the boys at the end of the street, and Lily immediately recognized the boy by his greasy hair and hooked nose. At the same moment, Severus Snape's eyes met her, and he froze for a fraction of a second. Lily quickly glanced away and continued to follow up the street, determined to ignore what she had just seen. 

What she did miss, however, is James Potter noticed the same thing that she had. 


	13. This Is Me Trying

Three days after the confrontation between the Gryffindors and Slytherins in Diagon Alley, the group was standing Platform 9 and ¾ for their return to Hogwarts. The Potters and McKinnon's had escorted the teens to King's Cross station to ensure that they departed safely. It did not go unnoticed by Marlene that her father seemed more tense than usual as he helped her load her trunk on to the carriage. Ewan kept tossing anxious looks over to where a few Slytherin students were standing and saying goodby to their parents as well. Marlene had recognized the families as the Notts, Crabbes, Carrows, and most notably the Blacks. At the sight of Sirius' parents Marlene glanced back at Sirius, who seemed to either not notice his family or did an excellent job of ignoring their existence as he continued chatting with the Potters. 

"Dad?" Marlene inquired, snapping Ewan out of his trancelike state. "Why are you staring at those pureblood maniacs?" 

Ewan shushed his daughter, and he helped her down from the carriage, "Never you mind. Come on, time for you to say goodbye to your mother and the Potters." 

Marlene followed her father back to where their group was congregating and found Euphemia showering James with kisses and hugs. James pinks turned a light shade of pink, but he didn't seem too embarrassed by his mother's behavior as he promised that he would write to her once a week. Sirius snickered and muttered something that sounded dangerously close to 'mama's boy', which made Euphemia raise an eyebrow at the long-haired boy and led her to show him with the same affection that she gave her son. Turning back to the Slytherins, she noticed that Walburga Black had very much noticed the presence of her son, and her cold, grey eyes narrowed at Sirius before she turned and whispered venomously in her husband's ear. Orion only slightly nodded his head but carried on with his polite conversation. 

"You be sure to write as well, Sirius," Euphemia urged him warmly. "I've already written to Professor McGonagall to keep us informed on how you are doing in school, so don't go thinking you can skive off your final two years." 

Sirius mockingly groaned, "Mrs. P, I've been skiving off in school for the past five years, and it hasn't failed me yet." 

"No need to be cheeky, my dear," she said as she patted his cheek and moved on to say her goodbyes to Remus and Peter, who both thanked her profusely for letting them stay for the final week of the summer holiday. 

Lily watched as Marlene was saying goodbye to her parents and was suddenly overcome with overwhelming sadness that her parents weren't here to see her off as well. While she certainly could have asked her mother to meet her at King's Cross, she knew that they would have been wailing the moment they had to say goodbye to one another. What broke her heart the most was that her dad loved coming to Platform 9 and ¾ to see all of the fantastical beings of the wizarding world and asking Lily a million questions before she hurried off to get on the train before it took off without her. Lily swallowed hard and felt the pinprick of tears behind her eyes and turned away from the group so that they didn't see her getting upset. 

Suddenly, she felt a gentle hand on her arm to turn and see the kind face of Mrs. Potter. Euphemia moved around Lily so that she could continue to keep her back to her friends and let a few tears out. 

"Now I don't want you to be a stranger," Euphemia told her firmly with a warm smile on her face. "You be sure to come back for a visit along with Marlene next summer holiday or even at Christmas if you like. I know it must be hard to be heading off to school without your parents here to say goodbye, so we'll just sit here and take all the time you need before you jump on the train." 

Lily gave her a watery smile and hugged the older woman tightly to communicate the gratitude she felt toward her at this very moment.

"Thank you for everything, Mrs. Potter," Lily told her sincerely, feeling her sadness melt away with ease. When she pulled back from the hug, Euphemia wiped away a few stray tears that remained on Lily's face and kept her hand on the young girl's cheek." 

"You keep giving my son hell," Euphemia told her with a wink. "Someone ought to deflate his ego a bit, and I think you're just the girl to keep him in check." 

Lily laughed heartily and gave Euphemia a nod in response. Behind her, the train whistle blew shrilly, indicating that it would depart any moment now. 

"Oi, Evans!" James bellowed over the crowd of people, yelling their final goodbyes. "Get a move on, or you'll get left behind." 

With a final wave to Mrs. Potter, Lily jogged over to the carriage where Marlene and James stood and took the latter's hand as he helped her up the stairs. After they found Mary reserving a compartment for the group, Remus and Lily took off to the prefect compartment to get their marching orders from the Head Boy and Head Girl. Upon entering the carriage, Lily examined their fellow prefects. The sixth-year prefects included Sturgis Podmore and Amelia Bones of Hufflepuff, Freya Moore and Benjy Fenwick of Ravenclaw, and Severus Snape Mildred Nott of Slytherin. Lily was very keen to ignore Severus' presence as she was fuming that he stood by and watched the scene in Diagon Alley playout without saying a word. Lily looked around to observe some of the new prefects, as usual, there were two from each house. She recognized the MacMillan boy from Hufflepuff, who usually had a self-important air about him. Of course, she knew Kingsley Shaklebolt from the fifth year as he was also a member of Gryffindor and smiled at his counterpart, Phoebe Caster. When she looked around at the fifth year Slytherins, her eyebrows raised, and she gently nudged Remus, who followed her gaze. Regulus Black was the newest perfect for the Slytherins, along with a pinch-faced girl Lily believed to be named Esther Flint. 

Remus let out a small hum of curiosity before turning his attention towards Frank Longbottom and Alice Fortescue, the new Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts. Frank seemed a bit nervous to get the meeting started and gave a pleading look to his girlfriend, who rolled her eyes at him. 

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, Frank," she muttered before giving a stern look to the prefect. "Right, you lot, listen up. My name is Alice Fortescue, and this is Frank Longbottom. If you haven't been able to tell so far, we are the Head Boy and Head Girl this year." 

"Who's the boy and who is the girl?" Remus said cheekily, teasing the couple for nearly identical haircuts and pointing out that Alice clearly wore the pants in their relationship. Not that Frank seemed to mind at all, he enjoyed that Alice was able to take control of any situation and was always happy to follow her lead. 

A handful of the prefects and Frank laughed at Remus' good-natured joke, while Alice playfully glared at the younger prefect. 

"No need for jokes, Lupin," she reprimanded him. "Right, the sixth and seventh-year prefects should know the drill by now, but for you knew folks here are some of the ground rules." 

Alice quickly dove into the guideline for prefects. They are allowed to take House points away from other students in their own house as a penalty for rule-breaking, but they cannot take points from other prefects or students in other houses. Additionally, Prefects can give detentions as a form of punishment.

Prefects patrol the corridors of the Hogwarts Express on the way to school. When they arrive at Hogwarts, they will also be required to show the first year the way to their dormitories and patrol hallways to ensure that other students are not breaking curfew. There is a bathroom with a large bath on the fifth floor of Hogwarts Castle that is reserved for prefects and Quidditch captains. It is located at the fifth door to the left of Boris the Bewildered statue, and this year the must use the password "pumpkin pasties" to access it.

Alice welcomed the new people to direct any of their questions to Frank and dismissed the other Prefects to begin their patrols of the trains. As Remus and Lily hurried out of the door, they hear someone call her name. Lily turned around and found herself face-to-face with her former best friend, who was giving her a pleading look. 

"Can we talk?" Severus asked earnestly, casting a dark look toward Remus before adding, "In private?" 

Remus looked at Lily to gauge how she wanted to proceed, and she sighed before nodding her head. 

"You sure?" Remus asked her cautiously as he eyed Severus suspiciously. 

"Yeah," Lily told him earnestly. "It'll be fine. I'll meet up with you in the compartment later." 

Remus nodded his head and shuffled down the carriage to return the compartment that held the remaining Marauders, Marlene and Mary. Lily turned back to Severus with an expectant look on her face. He seemed to be struggling with where to start the conversation and looked rather awkward to be in her presence again. 

"I heard about your dad," he blurted out in a rush. "Heard it around the village, and I jus-he was always polite to me, and I'm just er sorry I wasn't there for you." 

Lily suddenly felt like she was nine years old again and meeting Severus for the first time on the playground in their village, where he told her all about magic, wizards, witches, and Hogwarts. At the time, Evans just believed he was a young boy with a very active imagination. When Professor McGonagall showed up on their doorstep two years later to confirm everything Severus had told Lily, the Evans could hardly believe it. While Petunia staunchly hated Severus, Lily's parents were always kind to him as they were well aware that he came from an unhappy home. Although Lily tried to convince Severus that her parents genuinely liked him, they were certain that their kindness was simply pity. 

"Well, whose fault is that, Sev?" Lily asked, more coldly than she intended it to be. He blinked, not expecting her to be so confrontational. 

"If I apologized for that day at the lake a million times, Lily," he said urgently. "I didn't mean it, and if I could take it all back, I would, I jus-" 

"Wanted to humiliate me like you had been humiliated?" She said again, turning icier by the moment. Severus tried to speak again, but Lily continued. "You know I would appreciate your apology a lot more, Sev, if I hadn't seen you standing idly by as your little gang harassed my friends and me again." 

"I-I didn't know it was you," Severus lied poorly, hanging his head in shame. Lily gave him a disgusted look before turning on her heel to leave him behind, but she ran into a very firm figure. 

"Ah, just who we were looking for," said the familiar cold voice of Mulciber. "We wanted to finish what we started the other day, Mudblood." 

Lily turned to Severus to see if he would come to her defense, and to his surprise, he was giving Mulciber a venomous look. However, he remained silent. Lily glared back at Mulciber before taking a step back from him and trying to determine the best way to get out of this situation. 

"Mulciber, get back to your compartment before I have to dock points from you on the first day," She said threateningly, but he just gave her a mocking laugh. 

"You think points are going to scare me, Evans?" He spat at her. "What are you going to do now without your friends or any nosy shopkeepers around to keep you safe?" 

"Back off, Mulicber," Severus warned him weakly, but Muliber just gave him a dirty look instead. 

"How about we try out one of those spells you were telling us about eh, Sev?" Mulicber suggested, his voice dripping with malice. Lily felt her stomach turn as she was familiar with Severus's fascination with the Dark Arts and remembering vicious spells. She gave her old friend a pleading look and noticed that the color from his already pale face had drained from it. He was trying and failing to come up with an excuse as to why they shouldn't practice a dark spell on Lily. 

Then all of a sudden, a new voice spoke up. 

"Alright there, Evans?" 

All three heads snapped to the sound of the voice, and they found James Potter standing with his arms full of treats from the trolley watching the scene suspiciously. Lily took advantage of Mulciber being distracted and darted around him to join James. 

"Fantastic," she replied quickly as she grabbed him by his arm and led him back down the carriage. "Let's go back to our compartment, and I'll tell you all about it." 

James threw another look over his shoulder to look at the Slytherins, who were both glowering back and him. After a moment, Snape and Muliber started murmuring to one another as Lily continued to lead James down the hallway of the train. 

"Honestly, Evans. I thought you were done with all this nonsense with Snivellius. Doesn't it bother you that all his mates detest your very being?"

Lily felt the anger rise in her, she was finally just starting to come around that James wasn't an absolute git, but now he was here calling her an idiot for even thinking about giving Severus a second chance. She also didn't understand why James thought that what she did was any of his concern. 

"Don't call him that, and of course, it bothers me - that's why we aren't friends anymore." she huffed. "But if it's all the same to you, I am trying to avoid that lot this year." 

"Good, because watching your back seems to be a full-time job at the moment," James replied more bitterly than he intended. 

Lily wanted to lash out and tell him to do something that she would never utter in front of a parent or teacher, but she held her tongue. She suddenly glanced down at James' arms that were still holding a significant amount of snacks, and decided to change the subject. 

"What's all the food for anyway?" 

"Nicked it from the trolley for the lads," James said proudly. 

"Ignoring that you just revealed that you broke a rule to a prefect because let's face it, Remus will ignore this as well. Why couldn't you just buy the snacks? It's not like you're lacking in the money department," Lily said evenly. 

"Takes all the excitement out of it, doesn't it?" He said jubilantly, his eyes shining with mischief. Lily rolled her eyes and bit her lip to hold back a smile. She took a look at a wristwatch and took a deep sigh. 

"If you say so, Potter. Now, if you excuse me, I have to get back to my rounds." 

Lily continued marching on, and James kept his eyes on her as she strode down the corridor smiling warmly to people she recognized. James smiled softly before sliding back into the compartment that he was sharing with Marlene, Mary, Sirius, and Peter. Sirius was showing Mary and Marlene that he had bought from Diagon Alley and was explaining what he was planning to do with it. 

"Now the sap isn't dangerous per se," he said rather unconvincingly. "But you will get a nasty rash and some boils if you get a bit on you."

Marlene was giving Siris a look of mild distaste, and Mary looked anxious to be in the same room as this plant as if the sap would explode at any minute. Peter had an odd, excited glint in his eye as if he were eager to watch this prank play out. 

"So, who do you plan to use this lovely plant on?" Marlene asked in an unimpressed tone. 

"The Slytherins, of course," Sirius replied as if it were perfectly obvious. Mary raised her eyebrows as Marlene rolled her eyes. 

"And why are we trying to go to war with the Slytherins as soon as we start a new year?" Marlene inquired. 

"Well, I would think that obvious, McKinnon, retribution for sweet Mary here," Sirius said defiantly, and Mary scoffed. "What? It's obvious from the other day that they don't plan to back off any of the muggle-borns this year, and this is to let them know we won't take their shite lying down." 

Mary looked at Sirius pointedly, "Oh please, do not act as if this is a noble effort to defend my honor. You got that plant before our little confrontation with Mulciber and his cronies." 

"C'mon, McDonald," James said in an exasperated tone. "Are you really saying that the Slytherins don't deserve it?" 

"That's not at all what I'm saying," Mary said defensively. "I'm just wondering if we should actively agitate them because they're bound to retaliate." 

Marlene cocked an eyebrow and looked a bit reflective, "Although it is a bit exhausting that we always have to take the high road." 

"That's the spirit, McKinnon!" Sirius said joyfully, giving her a smirk, which Marlene returned with a glare. "This will just be a warning sign for them, no one will be irreparably harmed." 

Mary gave a disbelieving laugh before opening her copy of Witch's Weekly and ignoring the boys. Sirius gingerly tucked the plant behind his feet to hide in from anyone who might pass by and challenge Peter to a game of exploding snap, while James tossed around the treats he took from the trolley. James and Marlene were engaging in an animated discussion about what to expect in the upcoming quidditch season and if Marlene had any new intel from her parents about Edwin Wagner or the murdered muggle family. Out of the corner of his eye, James noticed that Mary tensed at the mention of the muggle murders and decided it might be best to drop the subject. 

After an hour or so, Remus and Lily returned to the compartment from their rounds. 

"Any details to share from your meeting with Frank and Alice?" Mary asked as both of the prefects shook their heads. 

"Mostly just an overview of our usual duties for the new prefects," Lily responded. "Kingsley Shaklebolt and Phoebe Caster are the new prefects from Gryffindor." 

"Kingsley is an alright bloke, don't suspect he'll give us much grief," James said brightly. 

Lily rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day. "Oh Sirius, your brother was made a prefect for Slytherin."

"Was he now?" Sirius replied darkly. Lily raised her eyebrows at Remus, who shook his head, indicating that it would probably be best for her to drop the subject altogether. 

"Anyway, what have you all been up to so far?" Remus asked, changing the topic. 

"Well, Padfoot here was just showing us - OW," Peter had started, but Sirius kicked his friend's shin harshly and shot him a warning. Lily would surely try and stop Sirius from retaliating against the Slytherins, which would have been a waste of the few galleons Sirius was able to save on his own. 

"Showing you what?" Lily asked suspiciously. 

"A weird mole on his backside," James said quickly, making Lily's brow furrowed in confusion. "He's a bit embarrassed by it." 

"But not embarrassed enough to show everyone else this mole?" Lily asked incredulously. 

"Too embarrassed to show a couple of fine prefects like you and Moony," Sirius lied easily, giving Lily his best charming smile, but she continued to eye him suspiciously. Lily appraised Sirius for a good minute, deciding it was probably best that she didn't know what he was plotting, and turned to talk with Mary and Marlene. 

As they neared the castle, the group in their compartment changed into their robes. When they arrived at Hogsmeade stations, the teens left their trunks behind and made their way towards the carriages that would take them up to the Castle. They could hear Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundskeeper, beckoning the first years to follow him onto the boats that would take them separately to the school grounds before they were sorted. Lily smiled, thinking back to her clinging on to Sev's arm when she saw that a tentacle from the giant squid poke out of the lake on their first journey to the Castle. Lily gasped as soon as they reached the carriage, aghast at what was pulling them. A skeletal, almost horse-like figure with wings sat at the front carriage, and despite its sinister appearance, the creature looked almost serene. 

"What the bloody hell is that?" Lily asked harshly. 

Marlene and Mary glanced around in confusion. 

"What the hell is what?" Marlene replied back. 

Lily pointed her finger at the creature, "The thing pulling the carriage." 

The group looked between Lily and the spot where she was pointing in confusion. To Lily's dismay, they seemed almost worried for her sanity. The only person that didn't look too concerned was Sirius, who almost had a pitying look in his eye. 

"It's a thestral, Evans," he explained kindly. "Only the real special witches and wizards among us can see them." 

"But why?" Lily inquired again. 

"I'll tell you when you get up to the castle," Sirius promised, holding his hand out to help Lily up onto the carriage. Lily threw another apprehensive glance towards the thestral. "They won't hurt you. Hagrid's got them pretty well trained." 

Lily sighed and took Sirius' hand to join the rest of her friends on the carriage. Lily continued to wonder why it was only her and Sirius who could see the thestrals, and she was slightly concerned that she was going a bit mad. When they reached the Castle, the group made their way into the Great Hall and found a spot at the Gryffindor table to prepare for the Welcome Feast. The Marauders immediately moved towards Frank Longbottom to congratulate him for being named head boy and promising that they would give him hell this year. Frank smiled back at them and noted that he'd let it skate, but they probably would want to avoid the wrath of Alice if any of their pranks fell back on her. 

Despite herself, Lily glanced over to the Slytherin table. She saw that Mucliber, Avery, Nott, and Yaxley had their heads together, and every so often, one of them would throw a dirty look over to the Gryffindor table. To her dismay, Severus still sat close to the group but wasn't paying too much mind to their conversation. Instead, he was engaged in a conversation with Regulus Black. Lily wrinkled her forehead thinking that the two of them made an odd pair, and when she turned back to her friends, she noticed that Sirius was also glowering at the sight of Severus and Regulus talking with one another.

After a few minutes, Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, led the group of first years up the Great Hall and placed the Sorting Hat on a stool in front of the new students. The hat suddenly sprung to life and broke into a song. Once the hat finished its yearly song, the first years were sorted into their respective houses. The sixth-year Gryffindors roared with excitement each time a student was placed in their house. James and Sirius quickly formed an impromptu dance for the new housemates, which earned them laughs from everyone except those in Slytherin house and only earned them a stern warning look from Professor McGonagall. When the sorting was completed, McGonagall wrapped up the hat and joined the rest of the teachers at the high table. Soon after, Albus Dumbledore, the school's Headmaster, rose from his seat to greet the students. 

"Welcome, welcome," Dumbledore said in a kind voice. "For our returning students, we are so happy to have you back for another year at Hogwarts. And for our new student, we are excited for you all to join us as you begin your education journey. Now that you have all been sorted, you should expect your house to act as your family during the time you spend within these walls. Furthermore, you should look to most of the older students as your mentors." 

Dumbledore through a pointed look at James and Sirius, but there was a twinkle in his blue eyes. James and Sirius grinned back at the Headmaster, unabashed by his gentle reprimand. 

"Before we begin the feast, our Caretaker, Mr. Filch, had asked me to make a few announcements," Dumbledore continued dutifully. "He requests that that students do not approach the Whomping Willow and try to cause harm to the valuable tree. Additionally, for students who are permitted visits to Hogsmeade villages on the weekends, he has a list of items from Zonko's Joke Shop banned from the Castle. You can all find the list posted in your common rooms." 

Dumbledore paused before continuing with his speech, and Lily could have sword that she saw his eyes linger on the same group of Slytherins that she had been watching earlier. 

"Also, for the safety of all of our students, you can all expect an increase of security from the Ministry of Magic during Hogsmeade weekends. Due to some concerning reports from the past year, we find it imperative to ensure the safety of all of our student without taking away a privilege that many of you hold dear," he said in a much darker tone, leading many of the students to mutter in confusion. Lily couldn't help but feel that this security increase was related to the Edwin Wagner case and the murdered muggles. She could feel a pair of eyes on her and turned to see Mucliber smirking smugly at her. Lily stared back at him defiantly as if daring him to mess with her. "Lastly, I would like to take the time to introduce you to the newest member of our staff. I want you all to give a warm welcome to Alphard Black, Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts?" 

"Who?" Sirius asked incredulously as everyone's head snapped towards him. 

A handsome, middle-aged man sitting next to Hagrid at the head table stood up and waved genially at the students, who gave him a subdued round of applause. At this point, most students knew that they should get overly attached to the Defense Against the Dark Arts position as it seemed to be jinxed for the past five years. They never had a DADA teacher stay past two terms since 1969. 

"Why didn't you tell us your uncle was a teacher?" James asked sharply, but Sirius gave him a blank look. 

"I didn't even know that there was an Alphard Black," he answered truthfully. "He must have been blown off of the family tree before I was even born, and you know as well as I do that once you're blown off the sodding tree, you're as good as dead to my family." 

Sirius glanced over to Regulus, who was also giving Alphard a curious look, suddenly his eyes met Sirius, and they were filled with questioning. Sirius gave his brother a shrug, and Regulus quickly averted his eyes. Looking back to the head table, Sirius appraised the man and noticed that he did look remarkably like his father and Uncle Cygnus. Yet this man's eyes did not carry the coldness of his father and uncle. They seemed kind and tired. He also had a bit more silver in his thinning hair and his robes, while nicely made, seemed worn from the years. Alphard Black's eyes met Sirius,' and he quickly recognized the boy and gave him a smile. Sirius quickly looked away just as his brother did. 

"Well, he certainly seems to look like a Black," Sirius muttered to James, who was still appraising the older Black. 

"He must be an alright bloke if Dumbledore hired him," James said thoughtfully. "Also, only the best people in your family get blasted off the Merlin forsaken tapestry." 

Sirius grinned at his best friend before turning his attention back to Dumbledore and gave a wave of his hand. Suddenly a bountiful feast appeared before them, and the student tore into their food. The Gryffindors stuffed themselves with roast chickens, sausages, fingerling potatoes, and dinner rolls. As soon as they finished with their dinner, they moved on to the delectable desserts. 

Lily still felt something nagging at the back of her head. 

"Marlene, did your dad mention anything about increased security before you left for the term?" she asked. Marlene shook her head, but she had a dark look in her eye. 

"No, which must mean that it's serious," she replied. "I think it might just be a precaution, but if Dumbledore of all people is asking for increased security, it must mean that they are worried about these murders and disappearances." 

"They think they would target students?" Mary asked, sending a nervous glance over to Mulciber. 

Marlene gave them a sympathetic look, "Well, they killed that muggle girl who was our age, didn't they? It might also be to protect some of the students who have parents who have prominent roles at the Ministry. These nutjobs could try to kidnap them and use them as leverage."

Lily suddenly didn't feel very hungry and pushed her plate away from her. 

"Lils," Marlene said softly. "I wouldn't worry too much about it. No one in their right mind would try to do anything close to Hogwarts with Dumbledore as the Headmaster." 

"Well, I don't think that murders and kidnappers are quite in the right mind, to begin with," Lily said glumly, making Marlene grin. 

"Touche," Marlene replied reasonably. 

Once dinner had finished, Lily and Remus moved to trail behind the first years as the fifth year prefects showed them the way to the common room to ensure that none of them followed behind and got themselves lost on the first night. As they reached the grand staircase, Lily glanced back towards the entrance of the Great Hall to see that Sirius was sneaking towards the dungeons carrying a strange-looking plant. 

"Remus, do you mind making sure the first years get up to the tower alright without me? I need to run to the loo," she lied. Remus nodded but gave her a concerned look. 

"Sure, but are you feeling okay?" He asked. 

"Yep, just went to hard on the pumpkin juice," Lily explained. "I'll meet you in the common room." 

As soon as Remus was out of sight, Lily dashed down the stairs after Sirius to see what he was planning to do. She recognized that this way the pathway towards the Slytherin common room, as Severus had once shown her where the entrance was in case they ever needed to find one another. Lily quickly realized that Sirius was probably about to play a prank on the Slytherins, which is the last thing the Gryffindors needed as they started the new year. When she reached the landing of stairs, she spotted Sirius placing the plant in front of the Slytherin common room entrance. 

"What are you doing?" She demanded. Sirius jumped about a foot in the air and sighed in relief when he saw that it was Lily. 

"Merlin, Evans, don't do that," he snapped. "You'll give a man a heart attack." 

"Why are you putting that plant in front of the Slytherin common room?" She continued, unfettered. 

Sirius feebly stepped in front of it to block it from Lily's view, "I thought we could help the Slytherins spruce up the place. It must be very drab to be stuck in the dungeons all the time." 

Lily gave him a deadpan look as she stepped around him to grab the plant, "Right, well, if that's the case, you wouldn't mind if I showed it to Professor Sprout to see what kind of plant this is." 

Sirius blocked Lily's path, and she glowered at him. 

"You don't want to do that, Evans," he warned. "Trust me." 

"Black, if you don't move this instant, I'm going to take five points from you," she said as an empty threat, and Sirius easily called her bluff. 

"Doubtful there, Red," he said arrogantly, making Lily's blood boil. 

"Fine," Lily said defeatedly. "The less I know, the better. Let's get out of here before the Slytherins catch you red-handed." 

Sirius beamed at her, "Excellent choice, Evans." 

They began to make their way back towards the stairs, when Lily suddenly spun on her heel and dashed back to grab the plant for inspection. Sirius chased after her and tried to catch her before she made it to the plant, but he was a moment too slow. Lily had grabbed onto the plant as soon as Sirius got a hold of her and the sudden movement made the plant erupt with a slimy liquid. The smell was putrid, and as it fell down both of their faces. Lily felt as if her skin was on fire and she wanted to rip Sirius limb for limb. She could hear the footfall of hundreds of students making their way towards them, but she could hardly open her eyes due to the burning sensation. 

"Ugh, what is that smell?" An unfamiliar voice called. 

"What the hell is Black and the mudblood doing here?" Asked another. 

"Oi!" Sirius exclaimed and then gagged. "Ugh, Evans, don't open your mouth. This tastes as vile as it smells." 

Lily wanted to do nothing more than wash all of this muck off her body but didn't want to risk causing more of it to spread. 

"What is the meaning of all of this?" Said a familiar, almost shrill voice. Lily immediately recognized the voice of Professor McGonagall. "Mr. Black, Mrs. Evans? What do you have to say for yourselves?" 

Lily wanted nothing more than to open her mouth to explain the situation, but she remembered Sirius's warning to keep her mouth shut to protect it from the plant's sap. So she wasn't left unable to defend herself. Beside her, she could hear Sirius trying to explain, but it came out inaudible. Professor McGonagall let out a haughty sigh. 

"Miss Nott, please go fetch Madame Pomfrey and let her know that I'm bringing Black and Evans up to the Hospital Wing," she commanded. "Mr. Snape, you go get Professor Sprout so she can examine that plant. The rest of you make your way into the Common Room." 

Lily could hear the Slytherins snickering as they passed them by and wanted to lash out and hex them badly. Lily suddenly felt something hard to lay across her back and lifted her off her feet and into a horizontal position. She assumed that Professor McGonagall had conjured up a stretcher to lead her and Sirius to the hospital wing. 

"Honestly, the term just started," She said tersely. "Mr. Black, one would think you would want to turn over a new leaf for the school year. As for you, Miss Evans, I would have expected more from one of our prefects to pull such a juvenile prank on her fellow classmates." 

Lily continued it keep her mouth shut and was happy that she had to keep her eyes closed as well because she wouldn't want Sirius or McGonagall to see her tears of frustration and embarrassment. 

"It will be twenty points each from Gryffindor for this little stunt," McGonagall continued. Sirius made another unintelligible noise. "And a month's worth of detention, that ought to keep you from thinking of doing something like this again." 


	14. Sympathy for the Devil

Dorcas twirled a squealing toddler above her head as the young girl’s hair changed from magenta to purple to lime green in a matter of seconds. On the couch, a man with sand-colored hair chuckled at the pair as his wife returned with drinks for the group. She smiled at Dorcas and the child before fixing them with a stern look. 

“Honestly, we nearly had Dora ready for bed,” she admonished Dorcas with a twinkle in her eye. “Now it’s going to take ages for her to settle down properly.” 

“Oh let them have their fun, Dromeda,” her husband said in a pleading tone. “Merlin knows that fun times have been few and far between.” 

Dorcas smiled at the pair before looking the toddler in her eyes, “Hey kid, if I promise to read you your favorite story from Beetle the Bard, do you think you can let your Mama get you ready for bed?” 

The toddler gave Dorcas a vigorous nod before reaching out for her mother. Andromeda smiled at her daughter as she took her out of Dorcas’ arms and carried her up the stairs. As soon as they were out of sight, Dorcas plopped herself in the armchair opposite Ted, and let out a deep sigh. During their school years, she and Ted always got along well enough but Dorcas was always sure to keep somewhat of a distance between them given her family’s beliefs and knew that eyes were watching her everywhere from Slytherin House. She always regretted how she treated Ted and Dromeda at the beginning of their relationship, but when Dorcas showed up on their doorsteps years later Ted treated her with nothing but kindness and hospitality. 

“How are you holding up Cas?” Ted asked her in his signature friendly voice. “I’m sure work has been keeping busy with those muggle murders.” 

Dorcas nodded, “We’re going to be opening a full investigation to a group we think is responsible for the murders, looks like some of my and Dromeda’s dear old school pals are involved.” 

Ted let out a deep sigh, “Can’t really say that it surprises me that much.” 

At that moment Andromeda returned to the room without her daughter this time. 

“Can’t say that what surprises you?” she asked her husband.

“That our old school mates and families are involved with the Langford case,” Dorcas answered for him. Andromeda gave her friend a dark, knowing look. 

“Yes, this does seem to have their usual stink all over it,” Dromeda said dryly. 

“That’s why I’m here actually,” Dorcas explained. “As far as most of our friends know, it was only me and Ezra that had the falling out. I talked it out with Moody and McKinnon, and we’re pulling together a task force to investigate whatever group is responsible for this, and the best way to do it is for me to go undercover.” 

Ted looked concerned, while his wife looked mildly impressed with her best friend but there was a twinge of apprehension in her eyes. 

“It’s smart…’ know thy enemy and know yourself - in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.’” 

Ted raised his eyebrows at his wife, “Your mind can be a scary place sometimes, love.” 

“Old habits die hard,” Andromeda replied in a bored voice. “Do you think your up for this Cas? I mean you were half mad when you came to us after fleeing from your family that night.” 

Dorcas shrugged, “I’m the only one that can do it, or at least the only one who can infiltrate this group quickly. I won’t have to build their trust from the bottom up, I have some nostalgia to rely on. Especially when it comes to Bella.” 

Ted mumbled something under his breath at the mention of his sister-in-law and Andromeda glowered. 

“But I wanted to tell you this both in person and let you know that my visits are going to be a bit less frequent the deeper I get in with the old crew,” Dorcas continued. “If I know them half as well as I think I do, they’ll have people watching me and….” 

“Being friends with a blood traitor and mudblood goes against their little manifesto,” Ted finished for her. Dorcas gave him a sad nod. “I don’t like it, if they’re so dangerous that they’re being driven to murder people what will stop them from killing you?” 

“Nothing,” Dorcas said honestly. “But someone has to stop them or they might start going after every muggle-born and the people they love. I won’t let that happen.” 

The trio sat in silence as the gravity of Dorcas’ words sank in. Andromeda and Ted were no stranger to the prejudices against them, but they were never faced with outright violence over Ted’s blood status before. Andromeda thought back to the night that Dorcas showed up at her door in shock and soaked with blood, it took hours before she and Ted were able to coax any words out of her old school friend. She explained that she and Ezra got into a fight and it turned violent, and despite Ezra taking it too far as he always did, her parents took his side. It seemed to be the final straw for Dorcas, who spent her whole life trying to show her parents Ezra’s true colors. Andromeda could never shake the suspicion that Dorcas did tell her the full story of what happened that night, but trusted her friend would tell her everything whenever she was ready to. But that time never came, and Andromeda felt like Dorcas simply wanted to forget the matter altogether. 

So the fact that Dorcas was willing to throw herself back into the snake pit and return to the family that she had ignored for years, really told Andromeda how dire the situation was. She wasn’t doing this out of revenge, she was doing this to protect Andromeda, Ted, and Dora and all the families that might be in danger because of their families’ ignorant beliefs. 

Andromeda walked over to her friend and hugged her tightly. 

“You do what you need to do,” she told Dorcas firmly. “But you have to promise you’ll come back to us once you take those arseholes down.” 

Docas laughed and nodded, “I promise, but if you two will excuse me I promised my godchild a bedtime story.” 

\--

The next morning, Dorcas returned to the Ministry, but instead of heading to the Auror Department, she took the elevators down to the basement level of the building. This would be the first time that the Aurors task force would be meeting to set their undercover plan in motion. When Dorcas reached the landing of the basement, she glanced around to hall to make sure there was no one lingering around that could see what she was doing. Once she determined the coast was clear, Dorcas made her way to the door at the end of the hall. Upon entering, she noticed that there were already quite a few people present. 

Moody, of course, was there as he would be leading the operation. Connell McKinnon was also present and to Dorcas’ delight, she noticed that the Prewett brothers. However, to her surprise, Emmeline Vance was in the corner of the room fixing herself a cup of tea. Sensing Dorcas’s gaze, Emmeline looked around at her and cocked her eyebrow at her old classmate. Dorcas averted her eyes quickly and moved over to Moody. As she approached her mentor from behind, Dorcas cleared her throat. 

Looking up from his files, Moody grunted at the young witch before stating, “You’re late.” 

Dorcas rolled her eyes. 

“I was making sure I wasn’t followed here, I thought you would appreciate that,” she retorted. Moody gave her a look of mild disbelief, which Dorcas ignored. “Anyway, what is our friend from the minister’s office doing her?” 

She asked this question as quietly as possible so that the others would not hear them. Moody glanced quickly at Emmeline and the looked back at Dorcas. 

“She’ll be acting as a liaison between the Aurors department and Mitchum’s office to keep him up to speed on our intel,” he grumbled. “Didn’t like it at first either, but it will save our team some time on compiling reports so we can spend more time in the field collecting information.”   
Dorcas bit down on her lip holding back what she really wanted to say about this, but knew it was wise to keep quiet. As much as Moody wanted her to believe that Emmeline’s presence was to the benefit of the task force, she couldn’t help but think that she was here to act as a babysitter to the operation. Docas knew it would take time to earn the trust of Emmeline and Connell, luckily her time in training with the Prewetts had warmed them up to her and she knew she could rely on Moody if things got particularly hairy. 

“Alright gather round, you lot,” Moody called to the others. The group shuffled over to get closer to Moody and Dorcas. “As of today, our operation begins. Right now, Scrimgeour and Dawlish are gathering up Meadows’ brother from their family home, so we will be heading up to the usual office to see him get hauled in. Scrimgeour and Dawlish have been keyed in that their interrogation will get cut short due to the lack of evidence again Ezra Miller, but they are not aware of the depth of our investigation here. The only ones who know about this are the people in this room as well as our Head Auror and the Minister of Magic, and it should be kept that way.” 

Moody’s voice was stern and it was evident that his closing remark was not up for debate. The group nodded their heads to indicate that they understood him. 

“Meadows here is going to storm in on the interrogation and once she does that, she will officially begin infiltrating the organization her brother is a part of,” Moody continued. “We will mostly be meeting in this at early hours and you may be required to work overtime. It is imperative that you are never seen coming to this room and that you don’t mention our efforts to anyone as there can be spies everywhere. For this to succeed we all must practice constant vigilance.” 

Dorcas's eyes flew up to Gideon and Fabian to see they were stifling smirks as the three of them had grown quite accustomed to the older wizard’s catch phrase during their training period. 

“Any questions before we get started?” Moody asked. 

“Yes,” Connell spoke up. “How much intel are we hoping to get before we starting hauling these people in for actual questioning?” 

“Well we will need some physical evidence to tie them to the Langford murders,” Moody started. “Or if Meadows can coax any confessions out of these individuals about their involvement in any murders and disappearances. However, these pieces of evidence need to be solid and clear cause to send these people to Azkaban. We can’t be trying for any longshot convictions, because many of these people have deep pockets and can easily wiggle their way out of going to jail.” 

“So we are just going to let them roam free?” Emmeline asked incredulously. 

“We have to look at the larger picture,” Moody explained. “These people are taking their orders from some bloke calling himself Lord Voldemort, but no one outside of this organization has seen this man for nearly six years. He has deliberately stayed out of the shadows, but the recent actions from this group indicate that he’s gearing up to make his grand debut, and once that happened it will be pandemonium. If we can get to him before that happens, we could spare a lot of innocent lives.” 

Everyone fell silent, knowing that Moody was right. 

“You ready for this?” Moody asked Dorcas. 

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she replied with a shrug. Moody gave her a rough pat on the shoulder as he led the others out of the room. Emmeline and Connell followed him without sparing a glance at Dorcas, but the Prewett brothers kept in line with their friends as they made their way to the Auror Department. 

“You’ll be excellent,” Gideon whispered in her ear encouragingly. 

“Wish we could go on the recon missions with you quite frankly,” Fabian continued. 

Dorcas appreciated the sentiment but gave them reproachful look despite herself. 

“Having you two blood traitors joining me would be a dead giveaway that we were up to something,” she said lightly. The brothers laughed jovially. 

“Yeah,” Fabian said agreeably. “Especially now that our sister is married to Arthur Weasley, we’re probably public enemy number one to these pureblood maniacs.” 

When they reached the elevators they had crammed themselves inside. Dorcas situated herself uncomfortably beside Emmeline, who was determinedly staring ahead, making it clear that she did not wish to engage in conversation. In order not to draw attention from the other Aurors, Emmeline got off at a random floor and gave the group a curt nod as she exited the lift. Dorcas felt like a small weight had been lifted off of her without the added pressure and judgment of Emmeline around. Her head was starting to spin as the reality of facing her brother for the first time in over a year was drawing closer with each passing moment. She was certain that he would rebuke her immediately, but she was even more certain that her father would join his son as the Scrimegour and Dawlish dragged his only son in for question. Her father would be the one to open the door to let Dorcas back into her old world, she was sure of it. 

Like most pureblood patriarchs, Lionel Meadows was a proud man who valued his family’s reputation and blood status above all else. When she was young, Dorcas always sought his approval in everything that she did. Whether it was on the quidditch pitch, excelling at school, or always falling in line when it came to showing where her loyalties lied in their family ideologies. However, nothing she did could outshine her father’s admiration of her brother. Ezra’s particular proclivity for the Dark Arts is something that her father always held dearly and he was especially proud of his son’s aptitude for inventing. While Lionel thought his son’s abilities would lead the family to even greater wealth, Dorcas thought it would lead them all to tragedy. When they were very young Dorcas often fell into the role of guinea pig, but once she learned to fight back Ezra turned his attention to the House Elves or younger classmates while they were at school. She had always tried to put a stop to her brother’s experiments and urged her parents to get her brother in line, but they were falling deeper into the organization that Ezra joined. She found them becoming more radical each day and knew that they would one day take it too far. That day came approximately 415 days ago in Dorcas had the count right. 

What she had been fearing for years came true, and Dorcas fled her family home in the dark of night. Her parents had begged her to come home and even made threats at times, but Dorcas swore she would keep their secret under the condition that they never try to contact her again. So, to protect themselves they granted Dorcas her wish, and true to her word Dorcas never told a soul about what happened that fateful night. 

When the task force reached the landing of the Auror’s Department they made their way to their respective desks. It was still quite early and there was no one else in the Department yet. At a quarter past nine, Ewan McKinnon entered the office and his eyes scanned the room quickly. His eyes landed on Dorcas and he gave her a significant look before giving a slight nod of his head. Dorcas interpreted this to be a slight encouragement from her supervisor as he was aware of what was about to go down in a moment. Twenty minutes after Ewan’s arrival Hestia Jones arrived with another witch that worked as McKinnon’s secretary and a few other Aurors. Dorcas impatiently tapped her quill as she continued watching the clock. Ezra wouldn’t be so foolish to attack Scrimegour and Dawlish, would he? Surely her father would caution him against this as an attack on an Auror would certainly land him in Azkaban. What if Scrimegour and Dawlish had actually found something that tied Ezra to the Langford murders or possibly another crime? 

Dorcas continued to run through the various scenarios that could be delaying their arrival when she was startled out of her trance by loud arguing. Suddenly, the doors of the department swung open, and as Scrimegour and Dawlish were dragging Ezra down the hall. Ezra was attempting to kick and spit at the Aurors as he cursed violently at them. Dorcas quickly leaped to her feet and watched the scene unfold. As she predicted, her father trailed behind the three yelling in a booming and commanding voice. 

“I hardly think this whole production is entirely necessary,” He told the Aurors. “My son has already told you everything he knows and there is no reason for further questioning.” 

“Well we appreciate your insights on this matter, Mr. Meadows,” Rufus Scrimgeour replied sarcastically. “But we would much rather like to talk to him in private if you don’t mind.” 

“I bloody well do mind,” Lionel said in a menacing voice taking a step towards Scrimgeour, who didn’t seem intimidated in the slightest.   
“With all due respect, sir, your son is a suspect for murder and under the law, we can hold him for questioning for twenty-four hours before releasing him,” Scrimgeour told him in an unimpressed tone. “If you have an issue with that take it up with the Minister of Magic.” 

With that Srimegour and Dawlish hauled off Ezra to a room down the hall. Lionel swore under his breath and looked widely around the room when he suddenly took notice of his daughter. His jaw dropped ever so slightly and Dorcas flicked her eyes discreetly to the hallway. Lionel understood her silent communication and stalked out of the department with Dorcas hurrying behind him. At the end of the hall, Lionel turned around to face his daughter, his eyes were blazing with accusation and scrutiny. A small part of Dorcas wanted to curl into a ball to protect herself from this all too familiar look from her father, but she had done a lot of growing in the past year and she was now able to hold her father’s stare with a determined look. 

“You said you would keep your mouth shut,” he snapped accusingly. 

“This isn’t about that,” Dorcas explained in a hushed tone. “They think Ezra is connected to the muggle murders that happened a few weeks ago. From what I know, the evidence Dawlish and Scrimegour have on him is paper-thin.” 

Lionel scoffed, “Please your brother had nothing to do with that. Though I don’t know why the Ministry is putting so many resources in trying to solve the murder of such filth.” 

“It was a high profile Muggle family, Mitchum is trying to make good face with the Muggle Prime Minister,” Dorcas continued though she knew this would mean little to her father. “Listen, I can observe the interrogation and if it looks like Ezra is going to incriminate himself I’ll put a stop to it.” 

Lionel appraised his daughter for a moment and looked almost as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying. 

“You would do that?” He asked. “Even after your behavior for the past year?” 

Dorcas swallowed her pride in order to keep her cool. 

“I’m starting to realize you all might have had the right idea about the world,” she said. “After starting to work here in the Ministry I’ve seen they have no standard for proper witches and wizards, and with this case in particular I find it a bit absurd that they are placing a higher value on muggle lives rather than caring for our own.” 

Lionel continued to gaze at his daughter, his eyes began to soften a bit. 

“I just think the shock of seeing what needs to be done scared me a bit,” Dorcas continued. This was a half-truth, as it outright terrified her. “That’s why I lashed out as I did, but now after having to interact with the filth of...mudbloods and blood traitors in this very office. I know you and Ezra had it right.” 

“Well,” Lionel began, “Sometimes you need to leave the nest to get some perspective on how the world really works.” 

He gave his daughter an almost gentle smile, which she returned but Dorcas feared it probably looked more like a grimace. 

“Go keep an eye out for your brother,” Lionel commanded. “Get him out of the godforsaken room.” 

Dorcas nodded as she marched back down the corridor and back into the department. She quickly found Moody’s eyes and gave a small jerk of her head to indicate that her conversation with her father had gone well, which Moody returned with a cough. When she reached the interrogation room, Dorcas sighed deeply before kicking the door open. 

“Meadows, what the bloody hell do you think you're doing?” 

“Saving your arses from a public scandal and more importantly getting my brother the hell out of here,” she told them curtly. Ezra gave her an incredulous look as she moved toward him. Grabbing onto her brother’s arm she urged him upwards out of the chair. 

“This is utterly preposterous,” Scrimgeour said in an aggravated tone. 

“I’ll tell you what’s preposterous,” Dorcas said in a menacing tone that nearly mirrored her father’s. “It's you hauling in a man with paper-thin evidence on the hopes that he would confess to a crime he didn’t commit in order to close this case as quickly as possible.” 

That seemed to have shut Scrimmegour up and Dorcas felt quite guilty about the tone she was taking. She didn’t need more enemies in the Ministry, but she needed to be convincing. 

“Now if you don’t mind we will be going home,” she informed the two senior Aurors. “If you have more evidence you know where to find the both of us. Come on Ez.” 

She hauled her brother out of the room and led him back down the corridor to return to their father. 

“What the bloody hell was that?” Ezra hissed in his sister’s ear. She continued to look ahead, not quite able to meet his eyes yet. 

“That was me saving your ass,” she snapped. Ezra opened his mouth again but closed it as he spotted their father rushing up to them. 

“Excellent work, Dorcas,” he beamed at her. “Now let’s go home. As a family.” 

Dorcas smiled weakly at her father and fought down the bile that was creeping up her throat at the thought of returning to her family home. After all, there was no place quite like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again so sorry for the delay on this chapter, we had some crazy family news over the past month that I had to deal with and I'm hoping to get out some more chapter. Luckily during this time, I was able to outline the next ten chapters along with how I envisioned some of the later drama to go down as well as the epilogue I would like for the story as well so updates should continue to be a bit more regular. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	15. Don't Bring Me Down

Lily and Sirius spent the first three days of the term in the Hospital Wing as Madam Pomfrey treated their burns and boils from the plant’s sap. Despite incessant interrogation from the healer, Sirius refused to tell her where he had gotten the plant, which gave Lily the sneaking suspicion that he had bought it illegally. Sirius tried apologizing to Lily for days, but she was adamantly ignoring his existence so by the second day of their stay in the hospital wing Sirius thought it would be wise to give her some space. Though he did quite admire her stubborn resilience to him, his efforts were quite annoying at times and Lily had never given any indication that she had heard him. 

The only times Lily did talk was when Mary and Marlene came by to visit her. When the Marauders stopped in to see Sirius, Lily would only give a courteous greeting to Remus but would otherwise ignore the boys because she knew the four were a package deal and were guilty by association. 

“You ought to make things right with Lily,” Remus urged Sirius quietly during one visit. 

“I’ve only apologized about a million times for it,” Sirius said scathingly. “The bird has gone willfully deaf when it comes to me, so why keep trying?” 

“Probably because she does turn a blind eye to about seventy-five percent of our shenanigans,” Peter replied. James nodded in agreement as he tossed a chocolate frog into his mouth.

“Yeah and we really don’t need to be on the warpath of Lily Evans,” James explained with his mouth still full. “We’ve all seen how that can go down. She can be quite formidable.” 

Sirius wrinkled his nose at his friend’s poor manners. “I’m telling you lot that I’ve tried to make it right and she is as stubborn as an ox.” 

“That’s a shame,” James said ruefully. “It seemed like Evans was starting to come around on us.” 

“You’re supposed to be laying off of Evans this year,” Sirius reminded him. “Or have you forgotten your promise to Marlene?” 

James glowered at him and continued picking at the snacks the three of them had knicked from Honeydukes to cheer Sirius up after his failed prank. James had not forgotten the promise he made to his oldest friend at the end of the summer but after spending some quality time with Lily in the final week of their holiday, James was beginning to regret that promise. Then Sirius’s prank had to quite literally blow up in their faces to erase all the ground James thought he had gained with Lily. He spared a glance over to Lily’s bed where Marlene, Mary, and Alice were visiting her as well. Lily’s spirits seemed higher today as most of her burns had been healed with Madame Pomfrey. She was engaged in an animated conversation with her friends, but when her bright green eyes met James’ hazel ones they narrowed into slits and she muttered something to Marlene, who snapped her head around at James. James tried to quickly look away but knew he would be receiving a tongue lashing from the blonde as soon as she was able to corner him. 

“How much detention did Minnie give you again?” James asked, desperate to shift the conversation away from Lily Evans. 

“A whole month,” groaned Sirius. “A bit over the top if you ask me, and it’s certainly the first time Evans has ever gotten detention, so that’s probably why she hates us so much right now.” 

“Us?!” Peter asked outraged. “It was _your_ prank that went wrong.”

“Guilty by association, Wormy,” Remus chimed in not looking up from his potions textbook. “Surely after five years around James and Sirius, you must know that we get lumped in with their wrongdoings as well.” 

Sirius let out a howl of laughter, “Oh that’s _rich_ , Moony as if you’re a paradigm of perfect innocence. I suppose Benjy Fenwick’s hair randomly all fell out of his own volition?” 

“The key is discretion, Padfoot,” Remus replied with a smirk. “Something that you and Prongs clearly lack.” 

Sirius scoffed and laid back down on his pillows. He spared a glance over to the girls before letting out a sigh of defeat.

“I’ll make things right with, Evans,” he told his friends. “I’m not promising that she’ll forgive me quickly, but I doubt she can resist my charm for an entire month.” 

To his surprise, his friends were giving him a look of abject horror. 

“Oh....he’s going to make a real mess of this, isn’t here?” Peter asked James and Remus. 

“Absolutely,” James said immediately. 

“Would expect nothing less,” Remus replied simultaneously while closing his book. 

Sirius glared at his so-called friends. 

“Oh bugger off, you three.” 

\-- 

On their first day back to classes after their stay in the hospital wing, Lily was highly disappointed to learn that her schedule was identical to James and Sirius’s. If there was one thing that drove Lily mad about the Marauders, it was that they weren’t as stupid as their idiotic pranks and antics made them out to be. Well, Peter was quite dim-witted but the boys were always sure to help him out with his studies so that he didn’t fall completely behind. 

During their first two years of school, Lily was wondering how Sirius and James weren’t kicked out of Hogwarts for the sheer amount of their detentions and was certain they would flunk out any day. It wasn’t until her third year that she learned that James earned better grades than her in Transfiguration quite regularly. She has skulked about it for days as she thought she was at the top of the class in each of her subjects. She had wishfully hoped as they reached their N.E.W.T. levels that the boys would jump at the chance to have as many free periods as possible. To her dismay, Marlene informed her that James and Sirius were aiming to become Aurors following their time at Hogwarts, meaning that their coursework was identical to that for students who wished to become Healers, which was Lily’s chosen career path. To add to her disappointment, Marlene would be unable to accompany her during their free periods as she would also be taking Arithmancy and Ancient Runes in her aspirations to become a Curse Breaker for Gringotts. Thankfully, Mary planned to go onto be a healer as her career path so Lily would have a friendly face with her in all of her classes that wasn’t a Marauder.

When the girls arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast, Professor McGonagall made her way over Lily to deliver her class schedule for her sixth year as well as a stern warning that she did not want to see any scenes like the one following the welcome feast. Lily held her tongue as she longed to inform Professor McGonagall that she was trying to stop Sirius from pranking the Slytherins but she’d rather face detention than be branded as a rat for throwing Sirius even further under the bus. Instead, she gave McGonagall a hearty promise that she would be on her best behavior for the rest of the year and flashed the teacher with a dazzling smile. McGonagall continued to give Lily a stern look, but the corners of her mouth twitched ever so slightly before she walked back to the staff table. Once McGonagall reached her seat Lily’s smile died instantly as she began stabbing violently at the sausages laid out on the table. 

“Why don’t just tell McGonagall that you’re innocent?” Mary asked with a laugh. 

“You know that everyone already believes that I’m a goody-two-shoes prude,” Lily replied darkly. “If I tattle on Black, it would just solidify opinion in everyone’s mind. Plus I think I can’t find a more tactful way to get back at Black for the detentions.” 

Marlene’s eyes lit up with mischief, “What do you have in mind?” 

“My top two options right now will require some potion making, that would either dye his hair a violent shade of pink or the other would give him semi-permanent spots,” Lily said simply while taking a bite of her toast. 

“I’d go with the spots potion,” Mary advised. “Knowing Black he would think the pink hair made him look punk and the next thing you know, half the boys in school will be sporting bright hair colors.” 

Marlene and Lily snorted knowing that this assessment from Mary was true. Somehow, Sirius could find a way to make the most embarrassing things seem cool. Last year, when Sirius lost a bet to Marlene on the outcome of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff quidditch match he had to walk around for the entire day in a girl’s uniform of a jumper, skirt, and robe combo. Sirius ever the fair loser took the loss in stride and walked around the castle in confidence. 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but he pulls off this look?” Marlene had whispered in Lily’s ear as Sirius was doing various poses in the skirt and complimenting the breeze to his nether regions. He would have committed to the bet for the full day, but as soon as McGonagall saw him walk into the Great Hall for breakfast she conjured him a pair of trousers and asked him why he would do such an idiotic thing. Sirius had simply replied that he had lost a bet fair and square. He even dared to ask his Head of House if he could make the change of uniform permanent, earning plenty of hearty laughs from the students watching the scene unfold. 

Suddenly, James had plopped himself down on the bench next to Marlene grinning at each of the girls. 

“Good morning, ladies,” he said amiably. “What has us all in a chipper mood this morning.” 

“Oh just helping Lily plot her revenge on Black,” Marlene informed him with a wicked grin. 

Lily snapped her head towards Marlene and glared at her friend, “I thought we would be keeping that information to ourselves.” 

Marlene shrugged as Sirius raised an eyebrow at Lily before asking, “May I ask what you have in mind?” 

Lily’s eyes simply narrowed at him before she turned her attention to her schedule. 

“Ah still going with the silent treatment,” Sirius noted in a bemused tone. “I shall wait patiently for your revenge, Evans. Now, where is Minnie with my schedule?” 

“For the millionth time Mr. Black,” a foreboding voice said behind him. “I will refer to me as only as Professor McGonagall or ma’am.” 

Sirius whipped around and smirked at McGonagall, “I thought we’ve grown closer than that over the years.” 

“You thought incorrectly,” McGonagall replied in an unamused tone. “You best finish up your breakfast before you’re all late to your first class with Professor Black.” 

That statement made Sirius’ confidence falter a bit as he hastily took the schedule from Professor McGonagall and he held back a swear word he wanted to say. He didn’t need any more detentions. She was not lying when she informed him that his first class of the day on Thursdays would be with this long-lost relative of Sirius and knowing his family, this man was sure to foul. The boys scarfed down some food before following the girls out of the Great Hall for their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the day. Upon arriving, Lily was pleased to see they would be having this class along with the sixth year Hufflepuffs. With an increase in mysterious attacks across the country, Dumbledore made it a requirement for all N.E.W.T. level students to continue with their DADA lessons so there was not the usual mix of houses that they would expect to see in their other classes. 

Marlene and Lily took a table together as Mary agreed to sit with a Hufflepuff boy named Reggie Cattermole. As Mary started a friendly conversation with Reggie, Marlene couldn’t help but notice that he was slightly blushing as he listened to Mary. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say that Reggie Cattermole fancies our sweet little Mary,” Marlene whispered to Lily, who also glanced over to the two and had to quite agree with her friend’s assessment. Reggie looked absolutely over the moon to be paired with Mary. “I’m going to ask Sturgis what Reggie’s deal is.” 

Lily raised her eyebrow, “Continuing the ‘relationship’ with Sturgis, are we?” 

“Oh heavens no,” Marlene scoffed. “I called that off _ages_ ago, but he was a good sport about it and he’s best mates with Reggie so I’m sure he’d be more than happy to help us set him up with Mary.” 

“Didn’t expect you to play cupid for others,” Lily said in a teasing tone. “Isn’t your motto always ‘snog them then dodge them’?” 

“It is,” Marlene replied with a smirk. “And if Mary had half as many brains as I do that’s precisely what she’ll do with Reggie. It's not exactly like I’m arranging a marriage for them, is it?” 

Lily laughed as she reached into her bag to take out her textbook to prepare for class. A few tables over Remus and Peter were sharing a table directly behind James and Sirius. Peter was looking rather glum at the conversation going on between Mary McDonald and Reg Cattermole as he has always quite fancied Mary but was always too shy to act on his feelings. 

“Wormtail, we’ve been telling you for ages that if you didn’t ask Mary out soon that someone else would beat you to it,” Remus said with a sigh. 

“I know,” Peter groaned. “I just didn’t expect someone to show interest in her during the first week of classes.” 

Sirius whipped his head around with a puzzled expression on his face, “Why are you two acting as if she is already spoken for? This is the first time she’s even talked to Cattermole, he may not even ask McDonald out and Wormtail could still have a shot.” 

“You think?” Peter asked hopefully. Remus glared at Sirius for potentially getting their friend’s hopes up because even if Peter did ask Mary out there was still the possibility that she could turn him down. Mary is nice enough that she would be gentle about that, but Remus knew that the rejection would still sting Peter. 

“I do and we’ll help you ask McDonald out,” Sirius promised quickly. Suddenly, the classroom door shut with a loud slam as Alphard Black entered the room. Sirius did a quick appraisal of the older man, his robes seemed nicer than the ones he had donned at the welcome feast and while he smiled gently at the students that watched him cautiously as he made his way to his desk, Sirius noticed that he carried the similar poise and nobility in his stride that was a signature stance of members of the Black family. Sirius couldn’t help but think about what Dumbledore was thinking when he hired a Black of all people given the current climate of the wizarding world. If Alphard was anything like his brothers, he would surely be spreading his blood purity poison to the students he taught. 

_“But he was blasted off the family tree,”_ a nagging voice rang in the back of Sirius’ head. Sirius shook this thought from his mind and decided that Alphard Black would have to earn his trust and would be treated guilty until proven innocent of his family’s crimes. 

“Good morning, class,” Alphard greeted in a pleasant tone as he received a few unenthusiastic ‘hellos’ and ‘good mornings” in return. “Well, I suppose we can chalk up your subdued greeting to this being your first class today or skepticism of my teaching skills.” 

There were a few murmurs of surprise at the teacher’s frank statement as many students have become accustomed to not getting overly attached to their Defense Against the Dark Arts professors as they didn’t stick along for very long. 

“Not to fret, a handful of my other classes shared the same skepticism and I’m aware that the position I hold is rumored to be cursed,” Professor Black said with a mischievous look in his eye. A look the Marauders knew all too well. “That is why I’ve told Professor Dumbledore that I would only hold this position for one year.” 

“Why aren’t you sticking around longer?” James blurted out, earning himself a kick in the shin from Sirius for drawing attention to their table. 

“Well, Mr….?” Professor Black asked before addressing James’ question.

“Potter, sir.” 

“Ah Mr. Potter, you must be Fleamont’s boy,” Black continued with a gentle smile. “Well, I would like to return to my quiet retirement before this so-called curse can rear its ugly head on my already unfortunate life.” 

Most of the class could tell that this was a half-truth as they continued to evaluate the new teacher to see if he would be willing to divulge any more information and his short tenure as a Hogwarts professor, but Professor Black did not go on to share any more information and instead opted into diving into the lesson plan for the day. As N.E.W.T. level students, he shared that their primary focus would be the perfection of nonverbal protection and defensive spells for the start of term before they would dive into detection and remedies for curses. For the entirety of the class, Professor Black covered the theory of nonverbal spells and the methods of practicing such spells and informed the class on which chapter to study ahead of their practical lesson on Friday. 

As class ended, the students began collecting up their textbooks and parchments to rush off to their next lesson. But before Sirius could reach the door, Alphard called out a request. 

“Er - Mr. Black can you come see for a moment?” 

Sirius paused before reaching the door and gave the professor a weary look. His friends lingered at the entrance to see if he wanted them to wait around as witnesses to the conversation. 

“I promise I don’t bite,” Alphard informed the four boys. “Sirius will find you all at your next class, I just want to have a private word with him.” 

Remus and Peter reluctantly began to walk away to their next class, but James remained rooted on the spot to confirm if Sirius wanted to have this chat with his long lost uncle. 

Sirius sighed before telling him, “It's alright, I’ll catch up with you in Transfiguration. Tell Minnie to start without me if she absolutely must.” 

James smirked and nodded his head before jogging off to catch up with Remus and Peter. 

“Those are some loyal friends you have there,” Alphard began and Sirius gave him a noncommittal shrug in response. Alphard smiled ruefully at the young man in front of him as he recognized the same willfulness and stubbornness he had in himself many years ago. “I don’t want to take up too much of your time here, Sirius, but as we both know our family has....a bit a reputation.” 

Sirius gave a scoff, “That’s oversimplifying it.” 

“Quite right,” Alphard agreed. “Now I know why this family history might have you being rather distrustful of my intentions here. I just want to assure you that I’m simply here to educate you on how to best protect yourself against the dark arts and nothing more. However, if I’m to believe the rumors going around the school you’ve dared to cut ties with that foul sister-in-law of mine and my spineless brother?” 

Sirius whipped his head up and saw that the older man had the same mischievous look in his eye that he had at the beginning of class. Alphard gave his nephew a smirk before continuing. 

“Why did you think I got blasted off that bloody tree?” Alphard asked. “After a rather horrid dinner party at your parent’s house, I told them that I wanted nothing to do with the lot of them and Walburga had a few rather choice words to say to me, so I let her have it right back.” 

“Seems like dinner parties seem to be the downfall for any black sheep in the family,” Sirius told him. “That was the final straw for me as well after I brought up Andromeda, that’s -” 

“Cygnus and Druella’s daughter,” Alphard finished knowingly. “We occasionally write to one another as she was old enough to remember when I was still welcomed to family functions. Seems that we usually have one or two people in each generation that are brave enough to do the right thing in this family or at least the courage to follow their own heart.” 

Sirius just continued to stare at his uncle, unsure of where he was going with this conversation. 

“As I said, I’m happy to simply serve you as a teacher, Sirius. But as an old man, I know it can be quite a lonely experience to be without a family,” Alphard told Sirius solemnly. “Now from the looks of it, you have some very loyal friends that you can rely on which is fantastic. However, if you’re in the market for having some uncle-like advice my door is always open.” 

Sirius nodded and gave Alphard a weak a noncommittal smile, luckily the older man didn’t seem to expect him to say anything in return and began to scrawl him a tardy note for his class with Professor McGonagall. 

As he handed Sirius the roll of parchment, Alphard spoke again. 

“Just one final word of advice before you go,” Alphard said as he handed Sirius the roll of parchment. “Reach out to Regulus, he might lack your courage in sticking up to our family at such a young age but he’s a good lad. He just needs someone to show him there’s a different path in this life other than the one your parents have laid out for him.” 

With that, Alphard Black turned on his heel and returned to his office. Leaving Sirius to ponder if he should try to talk with Regulus and see how he was doing since he had fled from their home that summer. Sirius was sure that he would be furious that he had broken his promise to stay on his best behavior and he remembered his mother’s warning to stay away from Regulus before he ran as well. But if there was a chance that Regulus could turn away from his, it might be worth a shot. 


	16. Never Going Back Again

Following a rather grueling first day back at classes, Sirius and Lily march their way up to Filch’s office to begin their first detention session. Sirius followed Lily’s lead and tried to find a way to break the awkward silence that fell between the two of them. However, Lily seemed very keen on her mission to continue ignoring Sirius’ existence, which annoyed him to no end at this rate. 

“Oh for Merlin’s sake, Evans,” he hissed venomously. “Why didn’t you just tell McGonagall that you were trying to stop me from playing the prank instead of acting like some kind of martyr?” 

Lily turned sharply on her heel to face Sirius head-on. He noticed that her vibrant green eyes had narrowed into slits and she looked as though she wanted to hit him. 

“And have you prattle on about how I’m a priss and snitch for the rest of the year?” 

“I wouldn’t have done that,” Sirius retorted back unconvincingly, looking away from Lily’s glare. Truth be told, he did often think that Lily Evans was quite prissy and acted high mighty above him and his friends. 

He glanced back at Lily to see she was giving him a disbelieving look and did not seem that she would move out of his pathway until he admitted that she was right. 

“Ok, I might have had a few choice words to say about you if you threw me under the bus completely,” Sirius admitted. “And I can understand why you’re being short with me, but you don’t need to take it out on the rest of my friends as well.” 

Lily let out a mirthless laugh and continued her march up the stairway to Filch’s office. 

“Now I get it,” she said almost bitterly. 

“Get what?” Sirius asked, trying to keep pace with her as she strode along 

“You don’t care if I forgive you or not,” Lily explained. “You and the rest of your little gang are worried that I’m going to get even with you by putting you all in detention every time I catch you breaking the rules.” 

Sirius nearly winced at how spot-on Lily’s accusation was. He’d like to think he was not as transparent as this, but Lily always seemed to have a way of reading people like they were an open book. 

“So...you’re not going to get even with me?” Sirius asked tentatively. 

“Oh, I never said that,” Lily replied hastily. “Although I am curious how far you’re willing to go with this apology tour.”

“Well I think it’s safe to say that now that you know that my intentions aren’t exactly sincere that we’ve reached the end of my apologies,” Sirius said plainly. 

Lily appraised him for a moment and figured there was a way they could reach some kind of agreement so that they didn’t murder over the course of the month. 

“Well, what if I promise to lay off you and your friends - FOR MINOR PRANKS ONLY,” Lily added on at the end as Sirius perked up at the first half of her proposition. “No hexing people you can’t defend themselves or any unprovoked hexes while we’re at it.” 

“Ok…” Sirius considered her proposition. “But what do you get out of this?” 

“In return, I want you to promise me that these detention sessions will run as smoothly as possible,” Lily continued. “No provoking Filch and no annoying me during whatever mind-numbing tasks he has lined up for us.” 

Seemed easy enough by Sirius’ standards, it would make these detentions quite dull but if it meant that Lily wouldn’t be breathing down their backs every chance she got it was worth it to agree with her. 

Sirius stuck his hand, “It’s a deal.” 

Lily clasped on to Sirius’ hand and gave it a firm shake. When they finally reached Filch’s office she gave him a glum look. 

“Well let’s get this over with,” she stated before walking into the room. 

\-- 

After several hours of polishing the trophy room, Lily and Sirius dragged themselves back up to Gryffindor Tower to retire for the evening. As Lily predicted, polishing was mind-numbing work and without the added entertainment of antagonizing Filch, Sirius found that he was quite exhausted. The two students walked together in comfortable silence and splitting when Lily made her way to the girl’s dormitory. 

“G’night,” Lily said with a yawn as Sirius gave her a half-hearted wave in return before climbing his way up to his own dormitory

Upon entering, he was surprised to find that his friends were still up and in different states of activity. Remus sat propped in the window smoking a spliff and gave Sirius a nod of acknowledgment as he blew the smoke outside to avoid leaving a lingering smell in the dorm. Across the room, Peter and James were pouring over a piece of parchment speaking in excited tones. James turned around and perked up as soon as he noticed Sirius’ arrival. 

“There you are you, Padfoot!” He called. “Come and see Moony’s updates to the map, it’s nearly finished.” 

Sirius strode across the room to peer over James’ shoulder and review that map. It was brilliant - a perfect replica of nearly every room in the school and everyone within the grounds as well. Sirius scanned the map and noticed that the map showed the exact spot where the Marauders stood and not too far off where Lily, Marlene, and Mary were congregating in their dormitory. His eyes continued to roam as he saw Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and Slughorn were either having a Head of House meeting or simply getting together for an evening cup of tea in the staff room. Most interesting to Sirius, he gazed at the footprints of Alphard Black pacing back and forth alone in his office. He wondered what the older man was doing. Preparing his lectures for the following day? Reflecting on the events of the day? Perhaps practicing giving Regulus the same speech he had given Sirius? 

“It’s brilliant, Moony,” Sirius said, giving his friend a brilliant smile. Remus gave him a two-finger salute, with the joint still crammed between his index and middle fingers. “While we’re at it give me some of that, I need something to take the edge off of that truly horrid detention.” 

“That bad?” James asked him sympathetically. 

“Polishing trophies,” Sirius informed him. “It wouldn’t have been so bad if I could have gotten a rise out of Filch for some entertainment, but I’ve given my solemn promise to Evans that I’d be on my best behavior.” 

“So she’s forgiven you?” Remus asked while handing Sirius the joint and giving up his spot by the window so Sirius could blow the smoke out of the room. Sirius shook his head as he took a drag and slowly exhaled. 

“No,” he told them with a brief cough. “But we’ve reached an agreement. If I leave her and Filch alone during our sessions then she won’t actively seek revenge on the rest of us for making her an innocent victim in our prank gone wrong.” 

“Again with this ‘our prank’ nonsense,” James said disbelievingly. “That horrible scheme was all your idea.” 

“You lot didn’t seem too keen on stopping me when I bought the plant and transported it all the way from Godric’s Hollow to Hogwarts,” he retorted and they all knew he was right. If they really wanted to squelch Sirius’ plan they could have easily done so and it was then when James realized that Lily was totally justified for regarding them as guilty by association. 

“You think you can go a whole month of detentions without annoying the daylights out of Filch or Evans?” Peter asked. Sirius nodded confidently as he took another drag, but Remus snorted loudly. 

“Oh please you’ll go bloody mad from the dullness,” Remus said accusingly. “You’d much rather face the wrath of Lily trying to spoil any pranks if it meant you got some entertainment out of the whole deal.” 

“You three were the ones who told me to make things right with her!” 

“We did,” James admitted. “Which might have been a mistake because we can quite see you spoiling this agreement you’ve made with Evans and somehow making it worse.” 

Sirius glared at all of them, “I need new friends.”

“Speaking of new friends,” James said without skipping a beat. “What did Alphard Black want to talk to you about?” 

“Just to confirm that he is a part of the Black family rejects like me and Dromeda,” Sirius answered honestly. “He also reckons that I should take it easy on Regulus and give him a shot and not turn out to be a total piece of shite like the rest of our family.” 

The three other boys gave each other tentative looks. Sirius and Regulus had a rather odd relationship at best. While at school, they often tended to ignore each other in public. This was mostly to protect Regulus from any scrutiny and ostracization from his fellow housemates. Sirius would never admit that Regulus’s cold attitude towards him at school when he had been sorted into Slytherin hurt him, but then he remembered his uncle’s words. 

_ “He might lack your courage.”  _

Sirius had never considered this before, that Regulus might be as anxious to separate from his family as he had been himself. Just because Regulus was in Slytherin and was better practiced at complacency when it came to the antics of his housemates, wasn’t necessarily an indication that he agreed with their blood purity fanaticism. Sirius didn’t even know where his brother stood on this matter which he found shocking that they never once discussed during the holidays when they tried to hide away from their parents whenever possible. 

_ “But he never fought back against the vile things our family has said either.” _ Another voice whispered in his head. 

“So…” James started. “Are you going to do it?” 

Sirius sighed, “I don’t know. What I do know is that my mother would go ballistic if she heard that I was trying to bring Regulus over to our all-star crew of the family.” 

“Well, he’d be better off with you than he would with your parents’ lot,” Peter told Sirius firmly. Sirius returned his statement with a small smile before getting ready for bed. 

\-- 

The next day of classes carried on rather dully, and now that they were N.E.W.T. level students Sirius couldn’t rely on classes such as Divination and History of Magic as a time to sneak in some extra sleep throughout the day. Even the Marauders ‘free’ periods were spent doing homework so they wouldn’t fall behind in any of their classes. The boys tried their best to stay ahead of their workload, so that come to the full moon they wouldn’t have the added stress of facing McGonagall for not turning in an assigned essay. 

By the time they reached the end of the day, there was nothing Sirius would like more than to just climb up to Gryffindor Tower and take a nap before starting his homework. Unfortunately, he did have to serve detention which was certain to numb his mind even further if he was to keep his promise to Lily to be on his best behavior. As he marched his way to Filch’s office, Sirius' mind drifted to his uncle’s request to give his younger brother a chance to build a real relationship outside of the looming presence of their parents. However, as he reached the landing of the third floor Sirius heard a bit of whimpering and snickers that drew in his attention. To his disdain, he found a group of fourth and fifth year Slytherins surrounding a small first-year Hufflepuff girl, who sat on the ground cowering with her hands raised defensively above her head. From what Sirius could tell, the girl didn’t seem to have many physical wounds on her but he knew better than most that some of the worst hexes and jinxes oftentimes didn’t leave a mark. 

As he whipped out his wand he did a quick scan of the girl’s attackers to see if he would be able to take them all on single-handedly. He was unsurprised to find that Barty Crouch Jr, was the ringleader of the group and was flanked by the usual suspects - a Crabbe girl, the Carrow twins, Travers, and as Sirius looked at the last boy his heart sank into his stomach. 

It was Regulus. 

Sirius felt like spitting in disgust at his brother, evidently, their uncle could not be more wrong about his younger brother. Regulus stood a small distance away from the group of Slytherins, but it was evident that his presence was no accident. What kind of person with a good soul would sit idly by as a girl cried and cowered away as she was attacked by five people who were bigger than her, Sirius thought to himself bitterly. 

“Oi!” Sirius yelled to get the group’s attention, the Hufflepuff girl wasted no time scurrying away as the Slytherins were distracted for a moment. Barty Crouch gave Sirius a reproachful look as if Sirius had just broken his favorite toy. 

“What is it, Black?” He sneered. “We were just having a bit of fun, no one got hurt.” 

Sirius scoffed, “I’m sure that first-year girl would beg to differ. You lot think you’re really tough picking on an eleven-year-old six to one? Didn’t think you could handle her on your own then, Crouch?” 

Barty flushed a dark shade of purple with embarrassment and rage as he stepped towards Sirius, who refused to back away from the potential challenge. 

“As if you and Potter never had a laugh at a first year’s expense,” Alecto Carrow nearly screeched. Sirius bristled at that comment, this bat couldn’t think that he and James laughing by changing people’s hair or using levicorpus in good nature was the same thing as ganging up on the first year. 

“Well the first year is gone now, but it's still six against one, how do you fancy your odds against me?” Sirius challenged them. He was surely outnumbered, but he figured he could cause enough damage to two or three of his opponents before they took him down. 

Barty Crouch, Amycus Carrow, and Travers looked thrilled at the thought of a duel against Sirius. The girls scanned the hallways to ensure they wouldn’t be caught by a teacher or a prefect passing by. Sirius gripped his wand anticipating an attack at any moment. After a moment of tense silence, a quiet but firm voice spoke up. 

“Just leave it,” Regulus said, stepping in between the group and his brother. “We’ll be lucky if that first year doesn’t rat us out to Sprout and if we get caught fighting on top of that old Sluggy will have us in detention for ages.” 

Most of the group gave Regulus a look of disdain, but Barty Crouch seemed to be carefully mulling over the warning before nodding his head. 

“Reg is right,” he told the rest of the friends. “If that little mudblood decided to run her mouth to a teacher we’ll be in for it. Best to keep a low profile until we can be sure we are in the clear for that.” 

With that, Barty led his friends down the corridor and out of Sirius’ sight. However, Regulus still stood firmly in his spot staring at his brother, his expression unreadable. Sirius stared back at him for a while before letting out a sigh of disappointment and disgust and turning on his heel to get to detention before FIlch added more time to his sentence. 

“You’re welcome,” Regulus called out to him condescendingly, knowing it would be enough to irk his older brother into speaking to him. Sirius took the bait easily. 

“‘You’re welcome’?” He sneered. “Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking you did that to save my arse, you did it to save your own.” 

“I did it to save both of our asses, Sirius,” Regulus told him calmly. “You were outnumbered five to one, they would have taken you down and had pleasure in causing you pain. You saw what they were doing to that girl, this stuff is just a game to them. They don’t think they’re hurting anyone.” 

“But they ARE hurting people, Reg,” Sirius yelled back. “That girl was on the ground crying and shaking while you all had a laugh -” 

“I wasn’t laughing,” Regulus cut in defensively. 

“You weren’t telling them to stop either,” Sirius retorted. “You just stood back and you watched. That girl is going to be terrified whenever she sees one of you coming down the halls for the next three years, afraid you’re going to attack her just for the fact that she exists. You think that’s a laugh?” 

Regulus didn’t say anything and glanced away, unable to meet his brother’s eye. 

“Maybe you’re right, maybe I did stop them just to save my own ass,” Regulus admitted. “But I also did it because people aren’t always going to be there to save you from yourself Sirius.” 

“What the hell does that mean?” 

“It means that your hot temper, pride, and self-righteousness are going to get you killed one day,” Regulus spat back. “That’s why mother and father threw you out, isn’t it? Because our world is changing and because you won’t adapt to it you’ll wind up getting us all killed?” 

Sirius gave a disbelieving laugh. “You want to adapt to  _ that _ ? A world where little girls are tortured just for being born? Or they go missing and get killed just because our parents and their friends have deemed that our blood is purer?” 

“I’m not saying you have to agree with what they’re doing. I think what they’re doing is foul as well, but you need to be smart about this stuff,” Regulus explained. 

“Catch yourself on, Reg,” Sirius spat at him. “If you keep moving back that line of what you won’t fight back against and what you’ll allow that lot to do, you’ll be just as bad as they are and I won’t even want to know you then.” 

With that, Sirius stormed off to detention and didn’t even bother to spare his brother another glance. When he reached Filch’s office, he threw the door open with such force that the bang of the door against the castle wall made Lily leap out of her seat in surprise. Sirius stomped his way over to the seat next to Lily, throwing his bag on the ground and slouching into the chair. 

Lily stared at him with bewilderment before glancing around the room and glancing at the hallway as if she could find the cause of Sirius' bad mood. 

“Are you okay?” she asked cautiously. 

“Oh, little miss perfect is finally ready to speak when she senses that there is something scandalous with good ole Sirius Black?” He sneered. 

Lily raises her eyebrows at him. She wasn’t sure if she was entertained or offended at Sirius’ misjudgment of her concern. Sirius seemed to be regaining his composure and let out a deep sigh. 

“Sorry, I just had a row with my brother about picking on first years.” 

“Hm...says the pot to the kettle,” Lily said tersely. 

“What’s  _ that _ supposed to mean?” Sirius asked, his voice dripping with venom, his thoughts drifting back to Alecto Carrow’s similar accusation. 

“I’m sorry are you trying to tell me that you and Potter do not regularly torment first years?” 

“We’ve never ganged up on a first-year until she was crying and cowering on the ground. We’re wankers, but we aren’t cruel.” 

Lily let that sink in, “Merlin.” 

“Yeah and on top of that my uncle is breathing down my neck to give Reg a chance and that he’s just a lost kid but then he pulls stunts like this. He’s more concerned about living up to ‘adapting to the new world’ rather than think for himself,” Sirius told her bitterly. 

Lily remained quiet and observed Sirius. 

“Families can be...complicated,” Lily said after a moment of silence. Sirius scoffed and muttered something about ‘oversimplifying.” 

“Did you know I have an older sister?” Lily asked Sirius, who furrowed his eyebrow to remember if he had ever heard Lily mention her sister. He had a vague memory of Marlen calling one of Lily’s relatives a cow and just assumed it might have been one of her parents. So he shook his head. 

“Yep good ole petunia. We used to be thick as thieves when we were younger before we found out that I was a witch. I would stress her out with my tricks, but then Sev showed up one day and told me I was a witch,” Lily told him, her eyes glazed over with memories. “Petunia didn’t believe him at first, but when McGonagall showed up on the doorstep with my Hogwarts letter things changed. She thinks what I am - what we all are - is wrong.”

It was now Sirius's turn to observe Lily. He couldn’t help but think it must have been hard to have half of the wizarding community, even your so-called best friend, hate you for having muggle blood and then have someone in your own family hate you for having magical blood. It didn’t look like Lily Evans was ever able to win when it came to who she was

“Freaks is her favorite term for witches and wizards,” she continued. “It used to make me upset for ages but at least I always had Sev but now he and I aren’t friends then uh...then our dad died and I thought Petunia would get over the freak stuff and be my sister again because I can’t change what I am but she can change how she treats me.” 

“I’m sorry, Evans.” 

Lily wiped tears away from her eyes and shook her head “I’m not looking for any pity, but what I’m trying to say is you and Regulus can both change how you treat each other. If you’re not ready yet that’s fine but if you miss your brother like I miss my sister, I think you should at least try to help him.” 

“I don’t think either of us is ready to change yet,” Sirius told her honestly. Lily gave him a sad smile. 

“It doesn’t have to be right now,” she replied. “Just keep an eye on him and maybe one day he’ll see that he’s on the wrong side of this whole mess.” 

“Is that what you’re hoping will happen with Snivellus?” Sirius asked, earning himself a glare from the redhead. “Sorry, old habit.” 

Lily laughed, “Well you weren’t exactly wrong...am I that transparent?” 

“Nah, I think -” Sirius paused trying to find the right words. Then he remembered what Regulus had said to him earlier. “I think we just want to save them from themselves.” 

Lily blinked at him, shocked that he found the perfect way, to sum up, her feelings about Sev. Then Filch finally marched his way into the office and barked their assignment for that evening. After that session, Lily and Sirius' relationship shifted from having mild disdain for one another and, not that either of them would admit it right away, into a deep friendship. 


End file.
